Love You Till The End (Natsu and Lucy)
by CrystalDT Angel
Summary: Lucy left to go train after being ignored by most of the guild members. She overheard Team Natsu discussing about how it's best to kick her out of the Team. After she quits, Natsu discovers his true feelings towards her. What do you think will happen in a world full of magic and romance between characters? And what would happen if Lucy appeared 3 years later at an unexpected time?
1. Prologue

Chapter 1- Prolouge

Lucy's P.O.V:

It's been two and a half months, two and a half months since Fairy Tail defeated the Reborn Oracion Seis, two and a half months since most of the members of Fairy Tail payed attention to me or even talked to me. It all started since Lisanna came back from Edolas, every one was very excited about this and we literally partied all night long, well at least the guild did. I just spend the day drinking my favorite milkshake, chatting with a few members including Levy, Gajeel, Mira, Team Natsu, Wendy, the exceeds and Lisanna herself. Turns out, we both like the same kind of books and we talked about it all night long until Team Natsu dragged Lisanna to the center of the guild to cut the cake that Mira made since who knows when.

After that, many kinds of events occured and finally it was the S-Class exams where we get stuck in Tenrou Island for 7 years. There are lots of battles especially ever since we encountered the infinity clock and then Zentopia Church decided to hunt for the clock pieces. It keeps getting worse and everybody was tired at the end, but somebody had to throw another party for the return of Lisanna since we only managed to have it for a day.

But during those months, I started training myself and my spirits has gotten stronger than before. I also bought two new celestial spirit keys, one of them was the key of the firebird, Phoenix and the other was key of the celestial dragon, Lumen Celeste or Celestise. Both of them were platinum keys and very powerful, it took some time to get used to the amount of magical energy I need to summon them, but after training in the woods almost every day, I started to get the hang of it.

Oh, I'm already in front of the guild, I need to go on a mission. Catch you guys later!


	2. Chapter 1

P.S: _Italics_ are for thoughts. Mostly Lucy's thoughts really in this case. Either way, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 1: Leaving From Betrayal

Lucy's P.O.V:

I sighed once I entered the guild, nobody greeted me, again. The guild was as rowdy as always; Natsu and Gray fighting, dragging other members into their brawl. Mirajane was wiping cups and beer mugs behind the counter, Levy and Team Shadowgear went on a mission yesterday, Happy was probably hunting for fish for Charles, who's visiting Porlyusica with Wendy, and Lisanna was just sitting at the bar. She was staring at the fight with a smile on her face, I walked over towards her, taking a seat.

"Hi, Lucy! Morning!" Lisanna greeted and I felt my lips turning into a small smile.

"Good morning."

"You're going on a mission today?" Lisanna asked and I nodded.

"My rent's coming up, I need to go to as many jobs as possible."

Lisanna was about to say something else, but Mirajane tapped my shoulder, forcing me to look up to her.

"Do you want anything, Lucy?"

"A strawberry milkshake will do, as usual."

Mirajane then glance at Team Natsu, where Natsu and Gray were hugging each other, trying to convince Erza that they were the best of friends and that they weren't really 'fighting'.

"Just give them some time, it'll all be alright at the end," Mirajane stated with a sad smile. She stalked off, still holding a dishcloth and a wooden mug, while Lisanna stood up and looked at me. "I'm just going to help Mirajane, the members are drinking twice as much alcohol compared to yesterday."

"Go ahead," I replied before walking towards the missions's board. The available jobs are mostly escorting someone safely to a certain location, try to dispell a hex or rune, and capturing a band of bandits. My eyes continue to scan the board with wary eyes, then I spotted a mission that would surely cover my rent. So I grab it and race towards Mirajane, who has just finished making my strawberry milkshake.

"Thanks Mira. I would like to do this mission please," I handed the white parchment paper to the white-haired barmaid.

"Please find our village's stolen money and defeat the mages that stole it. Reward: 120,000 jewels," Mira read it out loud then she crinkled her forehead together in worry. "Are you sure you'll be able to handle this Lucy?"

"Mira, I've been training for a while now, I'm sure I can handle this," I explained.

"Alright then," Mira began to relax a bit as she stamp the paper before handing it back to me. "Still, please be careful and come back soon."

'_Maybe I won't come back,' _I thought, then I shook my head. I won't just get up and leave with all of my friends not knowing, well friends that notice me. I turned around and noticed that Team Natsu is gone, the table they occupied a few minutes ago at the center of the guild is empty. A plate clean of crumbs of strawberry cake from when Erza was eating earlier is on the verge of shattering to the ground since it is on the edge of the table.

Not caring about the team right now, I was about to go home and pack up a few things for my mission when I heard a low growl, quiet but loud enough for me to hear coming from who know's where. I raise my eyebrows and look behind my shoulders to see the back door slightly open. Sunlight poured in from the gap and another hush voice sounded from behind it. Curious, I went over to the door, my instincts told me to find out what's happening, but my heart is telling me to just turn back and prepare for the job. I wish I knew which one was right but hearing Natsu's voice made me gulp, it was more serious than I've ever heard before. Natsu isn't the kind of guy that would act seriously, unless absolutely necessary like in an emergency or in a fight. This proves that it's Team Natsu that's talking and probably Natsu made that growling noise earlier. I peek through the door, getting ready to run if Natsu, Gray or Erza would notice me.

"What do you think?" Erza started. She was staring at the two other boys, waiting to hear their response.

"I think we have a point here," Gray mumbled, he barely made eye contact with Erza when he spoke. '_What are they talking about?' _

"Sure," Natsu said with intensity. At this case, he's so into what they were discussing about before I came that I'm starting to feel he won't detect me eavesdropping.

"Natsu?! Seriously?" Gray exclaimed. He seems pretty shock, his mouth was slightly agape.

"Well, Luce is weaker than Lisanna, so yeah, we could just kick her out of Team Natsu. It won't be such a huge loss," Natsu explained. That shattered my heart into a million pieces, my eyes were stinging from sudden tears that's starting to well up inside my eyes. It feels as if I was tied to a thick wooden stake being burned slowly by a scorching fire. It was painful, so painful to hear that from your own comrades. You could burn me alive, you can stab me with a knife, you can smash me against a concrete wall and make me jump off a cliff, but it's nothing compared to how I felt right now.

A single tear fell from my left eye and landed on my cheek, I quickly wipe it away. I'm not going to look weak. I saw that Gray and Natsu were talking to each other with voices that grew more vicious by the second.

"Enough! We need to make a decision! But I've got to say I think it is also best to kick Lucy out of the team," Erza said and the two males stopped, this time, they didn't bother acting like they were true friends. Erza... Why? I always think you're my own sister...

Before anyone of them could say anything else, I sprinted from the door towards the master's office upstairs. Mirajane and Lisanna stared at me with confused and worried faces as to why I'm running like my life depends on it. Believe it or not, it's true.

"Lucy, where are you going?!" They both called out after me, but I didn't reply. I was scared that if I open my mouth I would start sobbing and act as if I'm the damsel in distress. I've been protected, cared and shielded like I'm a fragile little princess for a very long time, and I'm done with that.

Soon, I was upstairs, I speed walk to Master Makarov's office, hoping to reach there in less than half a minute.

"Where are you going?"

I stop dead in my tracks, my hand is balled into fists, I swear if I keep tightening my grip blood would start pouring out from my palms and fingers.

"Just to see Master."

"What for?" Laxus added. He's sitted on a chair near the second floor railing, his team was nowhere in sight.

"It's not important," I let out. I let out a silent whimper and I hoped that Laxus wouldn't hear it or just ignore it and let me go my way.

"You look like you're going to have a breakdown and about to punch someone to death," Laxus snickered, but there was sympathy in his voice.

'_I will if you don't let me go to the office,' _I wanted to shout at him. "I'm just going. Leave me be."

"Hey-" But I cut him off by running into Master's room, shutting the door behind me with a bang.

Master was sitting on his desk, in his hands are complaints of Fairy Tail's rowdy guild 'activities' as the council calls it. He almost immediately look up when he heard the door shut.

"Oh Lucy. What is it?"

"I-" I could barely say what I was about to say, but finally I let the words flow out of my mouth in a calm, but hushed tone. "I want to quit the guild, it seems as if the members don't need me anymore."

A moment of silence filled the room ancould now Master's face is a mixture of shock, surprised and grief without looking at him, instead I was staring at the floor.

"What?!" There he goes. "Why- You want- You want to leave...?"

"Yes."

"Tell me who doesn't want you anymore Lucy," Master said. He seems angry, like he wants to rip someone's head off.

"Promise you won't... 'Punish' them?" I asked. Even though Team Natsu thinks I'm weak, I still care for them, even if it's just a little bit.

"I won't. Promise," Master stated after a few seconds.

"Team Natsu- particularly Natsu says I'm weak and that it won't be so much of a loss if I'm kicked out of the team."

"That Natsu! He'll regret what he said eventually-"

"No!" I stretch my arms and wave my hands in denial. "He's- he is right. I've been training but I guess it wasn't hard enough..."

"Lucy! Never think you're weak, you're the strongest celestial- no, one of the strongest people I've ever met!" Master was now standing on top of the table and jumped down to the hardwood floor.

"How? I bet everyone here can easily defeat me," I commented.

"You need to stop thinking like that Lucy," Master made his way over to me.

"But still... I want to leave. To get stronger, improve my abilities."

Master sighed,"If that's what you really want... Come here."

I followed him towards the desk and he motioned for my hand. I slowly gave it to him, staring at the pink guild mark. Master Makarov wave his hand atop of mine and a peeling, but other than that nothing, sensation occurred. The guild mark faded into the air in a flutter of golden sparkles, it feels strange to not have the symbol anymore. I wipe the back of my right hand with my left, tears threaten to fall, but I push them back again.

"Remember the rules, Lucy," Master said.

"I remember, you discussed it with me last time."

"Good," Mast- Makarov's face was sad, full of agony, and it makes me want to cry,"We'll miss you here. You'll visit sometime right?"

"I think so, but not often," I said.

"Good luck in your journey, my child. And remember, if you have any problems, feel free to contact us."

"I'll keep that in mind," I smiled a small smile and turned to leave when Makarov called my name. He ball his hand into a fist and extended his thumb and index finger outwards, it's the farewell sign.

"I'll miss you guys too," I muttered under my breath and did the same action with my now plain right hand. I knew I'll miss the brawls, the jokes passed between the guild members, the laughter, the warmth of being with those who I care for since the very beginning. Most of all, I'll miss everybody I know, the people who I'm going to left behind.

But I'm going to start a new life, to become what I wished to be. And I know I won't regret it...

Author's Corner

CrystalDT Angel: So how about my first chapter? I've got lots of exams this semester, so I won't update much. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter of my first fanfic. See you!


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2- Hosenka Forest Encounters

Lucy's P.O.V:

Once I got to my house, I payed half of my rent to the landlady then went straight up to my bedroom. It seems like a second ago that I went to the Master's office and quit the guild, the feelings from before came rushing back to me and it was very...unpleasant. No, it's more than unpleasant...

I grab one of my keys from my belt and held it up in the air,"Open, Gate of the Maiden, Virgo!"

"Punishment, princess?" Virgo asked, as always.

"No! But do you have a bag that can store all of my belonging's in?"

"Of course, princess," with that, Virgo disappeared only to reappear again with a navy shoulder bag that seems like it couldn't weight more than a few pillows. "Here you go. Do I get a punishment now?"

"Not at all!" I took the bag from Virgo and did a force gate closure. I'm not in the mood to hear anything, I want to get out of here as soon as possible.

So I quickly pack all of my clothes, bedsheets, the box where I keep all of my mother's letters in, and some food for my journey. I left my novel here for Levy to read and grab a few papers. I sat on my chair and began writing letters to all of the members of Fairy Tail, making it short but also express what I really think about them. Lastly, I wrote to Team Natsu; to that hot-head that's been my comrade from the very beginning since I joined the guild, the stripper that always fight with Natsu, Happy that silly neko and Erza, who's the strongest female mage I've ever seen. All of them are my second family, and I really appreciate them taking care of me. I slipped the papers into separate envelopes and put them in the drawers, casting a spell that I learned from a book to make the letters only readable to those whose names were written on the envelope.

I stood up and took my bag, checking to see if I've got everything I need, before letting a tear slip from my right eye. I went outside and lock the door, not that it would help if Team Natsu went through my window, but I did anyways. Would the Fairy Tail members notice I'm gone? That's the only question I could think of right now. I look northward and my lips quivered to a straight line.

"Goodbye Fairy Tail, goodbye Magnolia," I muttered under my breath before leaving for the train station.

_30 Minutes Later..._

The station is very crowded, many people were pushing past me to go to the ticket booth first or to get to their train. A few glared at me as I ran through the crowd, but I didn't care because firstly, they did it to me first and secondly, I'm in a hurry.

My mind couldn't make out where to go, I was thinking of going to Hargeon so I could get a ship, but as much as I want to leave Fiore, I still want to be nearby. I thought of other places like maybe a village of some sort, but how often do you come upon one in a continent that's full of bustling cities? For me, it's rare to cross a village, probably because I've never encountered one before. I always imagine the calm valley with hundreds of beautiful flowers, maybe a waterfall that's crystal-clear and non-polluted and it would be peaceful. But somehow... The idea of being in a quiet place doesn't appeal too much to me, guess Fairy Tail has rub on to me more than I imagine it would.

I finally reached the ticket booth and the man asked me,"Where would you like to go?"

"What's the first train that's leaving after this?" I said. It just blurted out of my mouth and I knew I was desperate, not just desperate, but very desperate.

"Well, there's a train 5 minutes from now that's heading for Hosenka," the man stated as he looked at the train schedule.

"I'll take it."

After handing the man the money, the train for Hosenka honked and I almost immediately went in. I sat at a corner and looked out the window, I didn't cry and I won't.

_After the Train Ride..._

I stared at the vast forest in front of me. After leaving from the train station, I asked some people where's the best place to train and they pointed me towards the forest just outside of town. I needed to take a carriage for about an hour before I arrived at the area, where I am right now.

Gulping, I slowly walk into the huddle of trees and glance sideways in case there's some Vulcans that might pop out or wild animals that could just devour me without having to use much effort.

There's a little crunching noise and I speed up north, a blur of green and a flutter of wings flew past me. I reached for my whip and turn a quarter turn, holding my whip above my head, only to notice that the wings are a bird's and what made the noise earlier is a white snow rabbit. I sighed, but I didn't put back my whip, I need to be ready if someone or something attacks me.

A berry bush stood a few yards away from my right, the berries glowing a scarlet red, a navy blue and a pinkish-peach. I looked at the fruits, knowing that they were poisonous since I ever read a book about plants, and can't help but realizing that they remind me of Team Natsu. Shaking my head, I continue on my way, taking in my surroundings. The whole place is a sea of emerald, leaves were scattered around on the ground, sticks and stones lay near roots of trees, and a few times I've encountered bushes of flowers or blueberries. I ate a dozen of them after I couldn't ignore my slight hunger, and they were very delicious. The juice is also refreshing, I smiled, I could live here.

Then a growl made me stop in my tracks, I spin around as my reflex and saw a lion-like creature with grey fur and a colorful mane full of blue, yellow and pink streaks. I yelped once it took two careful steps towards me, crouching low like the predator it is. And I was the prey. The lion lunge at me and I slash my whip at it's face. It staggered back and I slam the handle of the whip on his head before running the opposite direction. I gasp and panted, I probably ran 10km/hr. Another growl sounded and I prepare to use my key, I can't run forever and me and the creature both knew it.

Holding Taurus's key, I froze when a girl's cry rang like someone is playing a set of drums next to my ear and I winced.

"Hold on!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the lion creature fell to the ground and whined like a little puppy. It stuck it's tongue out, looking like it's dead and I can't help but sweat drop at this.

"You okay? Nasty creatures those lions, but they can be hilarious," commented a voice next to me. I jumped a feet away and held my whip in front of me, but I lowered it when I saw a girl, around my age, standing with a transparent glass-like sword in her right hand.

"Who are you?" I stammered out and I mentally slap myself. I shouldn't shudder or do anything like that.

I look at the girl more closely now to see that she's a centimeter taller than me, with hip-length semi-wavy raven hair and amber eyes. She has bangs that reaches past her shoulders and frame her pale, oval face. The bangs are braided and secured by white hairbands that stood out from all the black locks. From what I could see, the girl's wearing a crimson tank top covered by a long-sleeve black jacket, a pastel miniskirt held up by a dark belt and knee-high brown hiking boots. She gave a small smile and replied calmly,"My name's Emily. I live here."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3- Missing and Letters

Natsu's P.O.V:

Me, ice freak and Erza came back into the guild after deciding that it's best if we kick Lucy out to make place for Lisanna. I look around with a grin, which disappeared once I smelt the scent of salt. Someone must be crying. I sniff and I turn towards the direction of the bar where Mira is sobbing along with Lisanna. I wonder what's wrong and why did the two sisters cry?

I march through the crowd of guild members that shot me a blank look and others ignore me for no reason at all! This is making me frustrated, what exactly has happened anyway?!

"Hey, Mira, are you crying, everything's perfectly fine!" I smiled and cross my arms.

"Perfectly fine?" Mira growled, but there was still sadness in her voice. She broke free of Lisanna's hug and stood up. Her hands were clutched into fists and her expression was that of her demon persona. I gulped and back away, afraid that Mira would transform into her Satan Soul form, and I'm not lying, Mira's Satan Soul is even more scarier than Erza's glare. But I won't admit that out loud, or not Erza would beat me up and create an even more frightening glare.

"What's going on here?" Erza asked while glancing around. At the same time, the doors of the guild burst open, a loud bang rang through the whole room. Team Shadowgear, with Levy standing at the center and very front, appeared. Levy's face is red with anger and she held her light pen close to her chest.

"Where's Team Natsu?!"

"Woah, what's this about?" Gray exclaimed.

"Don't you realize something missing?" Gramps asked from the second floor balcony. I raise one of my eyebrows before checking out the guild. Everything was in place, the tables and chairs all align and neat, the bar all tidied up, the members all chattering, but pretty quiet if you ask me.

"No," I said out loud, I heard Levy's and Mira's ferocious growls and I instantly grew nervous. Lisanna stood next to her sister, her eyes are wet and her cheeks were flush. What's so important anyway- Then I realized. Where's the blonde that's been in my Team since the very beginning, where's the celestial spirit Mage that Team Natsu's discussed about a while ago, where's Lucy?

"Oh, why isn't she here? She's always here," I blurted out.

"She quit the guild," Gramps stated sadly. He looked down at us and I felt... Shocked? Surprised? Pain? I don't understand why I'm feeling like this, wouldn't it be for the best? We were about to kick Lucy out of the Team anyway, it's better if she just leave and spare us from explaining why Lisanna's taking her spot. There's a sharp pang in my heart, but I ignored it. I started feeling guilty, but I shook that feeling off. The guild was in silence, you could hear a pin drop. The only sounds are Mira's, Lisanna's and Levy's constant sniffs and sobbing. But I smelt no more tears, only anger and pain was left. These two emotions are so strong, I could just feel it radiating off the three girls.

"Why?" Erza asked, breaking the silence.

"Because-" Gramps is cut off by Levy, who stomp her foot down like an angry child.

"It's because of the whole guild!"

"What?" the members all whispered.

"You guys have been ignoring Lucy for months! Who wouldn't leave and quit the guild like Lucy did?" This time it was Mira who shouted.

"Especially Team Natsu," Levy cross her arms.

"B-But, Luce won't just-" I stuttered out. I couldn't make out any words.

"She left, deal with it Natsu," a voice announced from the second floor and we all look up to see someone unexpected. Laxus.

"Laxus-" I was about to ask him if he knew why Lucy really left, but I didn't get the chance. I still didn't believe that she would leave.

"She overheard you talking about kicking her out," Lisanna mumbled under her breath, but I'm sure everybody could hear her.

"Lucy..." That's the final straw. I felt extremely guilty, as much as I wanted all of this nonsense to stop, I knew deep down that they were right. A thought then popped into my mind, making my head snap upwards. "I want to go and see her! She must still be at her apartment!"

"Let's go quickly, she can't be far. We need to apologize," Ice Stripper said and I actually agreed with him this time.

"Like she would talk to you guys," Levy exclaimed.

"We need to try," Erza stated.

"Let's hurry!" I quickly push through the crowd of guild members that's starting to gather around us and slam the door open. Don't leave Lucy, not yet.

_10 minutes later..._

I went through the apartment's bedroom window, looking around frantically, hoping to see Lucy writing a letter to her mom as always or sitting on her bed while reading a book. But instead, I found no one.

"Luce!" No respond.

Normally, Lucy would come out and throw me out of her apartment with her 'Lucy kick', now it felt strange not to fall face first onto the street from the window. I sniff and smelt the faint smell of strawberry and vanilla, it's still strong so maybe Lucy is still in Magnolia. But first, I needed to prove if Lucy left or not, hopefully she's just going to visit a friend or having lunch somewhere.

Erza and ice stripper finally reached the house and they landed behind me after jumping through the window.

"She's not here?" Erza looked worried, she clench her hands into fists.

"No, but she's been here just a while ago," I replied. I went to her desk, where the smell is the strongest and search through her drawers. The top of the desk is neat, only there wasn't anything piled on top of it, there aren't even any books! I'm praying in my mind that she didn't actually leave and just then, another whole different layer of guilt build up in the pit of my stomach. I shook that feeling off because I refuse to believe that Luce did quit the guild.

"Search everywhere!" Erza demanded and Gray scurried off to who knows where.

I continued rummaging through the drawers until I got to the last one on the bottom. Inside it are several white envelopes without a seal. I stood up, clutching the envelopes in my hands and stared at them for what seems like hours when Erza and Gray burst into the room.

"We didn't find anything," Gray mumbled under his breath. He looked down, half of his face is shadowed by his hair.

There was a moment of silence until I opened my dry mouth,"I did. She left us letters."

Saying _her _name makes me feel more desperate and I could just kneel down and be frozen by ice freak with gladness. It's way better than this.

"What?" Erza choked out. She grab more than half of the letters in her hands and looked through each of them. "Levy... Mira, Lisanna... Wendy... Charles... Even Gajeel and Juvia..."

While she was doing this, I found the letter with my name on it and silently read it.

'_Dear Natsu,_

_You've ignored me for quite some time now, but yet I couldn't help but miss you. I'm writing this to tell you that I quit the guild, but I don't expect you to care that much. Thank you for making me join your team and for the hundreds of times you save me. Hope you'll have a happy life with Lisanna, I don't regret going, I'm going to get stronger and it's not impossible to accomplish. Anyways, I'll be gone for maybe two or more years, I expect you to improve your skills too. Goodbye._

_From Lucy Heartfilia'_

I grip the paper very tightly before opening another envelope with a letter for Team Natsu.

"She wrote one for the team."

"Let me," Erza said and took the paper from my hands then read it out loud.

"Dear Team Natsu, you've all been very kind to me and also motivates me to get even stronger than I was. By the time you read this, I'll be out of Magnolia. I really want to meet you guys again if I can, but that's decision is up to you. Thank you all for making me realize that I'm weak, so I could go and improve. Sincerely, Lucy Heartfilia, ex-team member of Team Natsu and ex-Mage of Fairy Tail..."

We were all in silence after that, and I couldn't help but fall to my knees helplessly. That's when I finally realize what feeling I was experiencing besides the guilt... It was pain and loss, I miss Lucy. And I know I miss her the most...


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4- Emily

Lucy's P.O.V:

I stared at the so called 'Emily' and she looked at me from top to bottom, as if she's a curious little kid who just saw a big fat guy dressed up in a princess outfit. We looked at each other for a long time, it felt like a decade has already pass when the awkward silence is broken by Emily.

"Well, what's your name then?" she asked.

"It's... Lucy," I finally said after a moment of hesitation.

"Welcome to the forest, Lucy. But what are you doing here? Normally not many people come here deep into the hearth, are you running away?" Emily added.

The hearth of the forest?! I'm already that deep? I couldn't imagine that I had ran that far at a short period of time, guess I'm really scared and I'm pretty sure if I'm frightened again, I'll run like a streak of lightning.

"Partially, but I'm actually looking for a place to train..." I trailed off.

"Train? You're a Mage then. There must be another reason though," Emily said, she's now inspecting me again, but more relaxed that before. She shifted her weight to her right leg and the blade she was holding disappear. Is she a requip Mage? This thought makes me think of Erza and how Emily resembles her in a way that I didn't bother to thoroughly process it. An image of Team Natsu appeared in my mind and I mentally slap myself for thinking about them again. I need to focus on more important things right now, and I'm not going to lose my concentration over Fairy Tail. Though I'm exceptionally worried about Levy, Wendy, Mirajane and Lisanna. Happy and Charles too. I remember the Take-Over sisters's sobbing faces, all pale with a hint of redness on their faces and dried tears on their eyes and cheeks.

"I don't want to talk about it... It's pretty personal and it hurts to even mention it," I replied, trying as hard as I could to sound casual.

"I understand then," Emily stated before taking a reluctant step back and glancing at the direction I was running from. "It's dangerous here, we need to go to the valley."

"Valley?" I scrunch up my nose in confusion, there's a valley nearby? There's obviously a whole lot of things I don't know about this place. Then I realized that I haven't ask Emily about what she said earlier. "Wait a minute. You said that you live here, in the forest?"

"More like the valley I guess," Emily shrug. "You'll see soon enough."

"What about the reason that you're living here? What's your purpose?" my curiosity got the better of me and I blurted it out without hesitation.

"It's also personal, but I guess I could trust you. We're running away and arrive here for the same thing too anyways. Can't see why not to tell you."

Probably because I'm a complete stranger, with a girlish shriek that could wake the dead in a minute? Obviously, the girl doesn't seem to communicate much, I just don't know why. Well, she did say we were both fleeing here for the same purpose. But I couldn't easily trust anyone after the... Fairy Tail 'incident'.

"Really?"

"Yes, but let's go to where I live first, we can talk on the way," Emily said. She turn around and began walking north through the forest path. I just stood there, thinking about how I could really believe this girl, until Emily glance at me from behind her shoulder.

"You coming?"

I nodded hesitantly before taking three long strides towards her direction, I put my whip into my belt, still keeping my hold on it.

We walked silently for the next 5 minutes and during that time, I'm absorbing in my new surroundings while checking to see if there's any sign of wild animals nearby.

"I began staying here about 5 years ago," Emily started, making me jump. "I belong to a fairly small family, no grandparents, just my mother and father. We lived in Hargeon, my father was a mage in the guild Titan Nose, but he retired soon after I was born. He began work as a sailor, and own a port off the coast of Akane Island. It didn't make much profit but then when more people started coming to the island, his business became even more bigger and our family earned lots of money. We bought a new house near the beach, where it's more quiet and calm. Our family sometimes have dinner with my dad's friends, my mom cooks the best food, especially dessert. My mom is just a regular baker that happens to learn magic in her youth. As a child, because of the money we had, they would buy me lots of things. Mostly little tiny jewelries that I always played."

"So you're rich?" I asked. Emily doesn't seem like what she said she used to be. She just nodded and we circle around an oak tree with large heavy trunks that could squish me into a bug in a split second if it fell on top of my head.

"This lasted until I was 10, me and my mom were just visiting my only aunt in Crocus, while we were going back home, we encountered a group of dark mages. They took all of our money, and stabbed my mother. That's when I figure out my magic power. I requip a sword and drove away the dark mages. After that, I tried carrying my mom to a hospital, but she doesn't let me. An old man saw us and brought us to the nearest hospital, despite my mother's protests. I called my dad and he came. A moment later, we heard that it was too late to save my mother. When me and my dad got home, he hit me on the back, telling me not to cry and to train so I wouldn't be such a weakling. I started training for 2 and a half years in my free time and manage to requip 100 swords. My father told me I need to be able to get more stronger and I was abused for the whole night. The next day, another sailor visited our house and because my dad didn't want to pay his debt, he burned our house. I managed to escape and took a train to Hosenka since the sailor was chasing me. I was very scared and ran towards this forest after I arrived in Hosenka. The sailor found me and it turns out he's a dark mage. I was ready and pretty sure I would be killed, but then I unexpectantly block the mage's attack and stab him. That's why I started living here, I don't want to get into further trouble. But I do get lonely sometimes..." Emily explained.

"Well, it sounds a lot worse than mine's," I stated.

"What is it?" Emily asked. "What happened?"

"I-" I was cut off when I saw that we arrived at a large clearing. It has stalks of yellowish grass that looks like strings of golden grain under the sunlight and a few trees here and there like the oak tree we passed earlier.

Small colorful flower heads peeped out from the grass and the melody of songbirds made me just want to dance all day long. The tune reminds me of the song that my mother sang when we were playing out in the backyard of the Heartfilia mansion, happy and so sincere. I was too busy listening and taking in the beautiful surroundings when Emily began walking again. I snap from my thoughts and started following her like a little puppy.

I glance at the sky to see it a clear shade of light blue and puffy snow white clouds, the sun looks like a burning yellow fire with a hint of silver in it.

Emily led us to the east and out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a massive mansion-like building with translucent tinted glass walls and a set of wooden black double doors as the entrance. The rooftop is flat and the whole house rivals the beauty of the clearing. I stood with my mouth agape until Emily caught my arm and we make our way through the doors.

The living room is just as large, but with white and violet walls, a white loveseat sat around 3 feet away from a polished white marble fireplace and right in front of it is a rectangular black coffee table. On either side of the table is two white armchairs that looks so inviting and comfortable.

The floor is a dark shade of brown and a flight of white stairs covered by a lilac purple carpet with golden linings sat on the far left end corner of the living room. Several pictures hung on the walls and I noticed a couple of 7 foot tall bookshelves leaning against the right wall. On it is books with hard covers and all arranged by alphabetical order.

"Woah," I managed to breath out. I was still shocked even though I used to live in a mansion myself,"You live here?"

"You could say that, actually I hope I won't be here alone sooner or later," Emily said.

"Sooner or later?"

"I'm hoping to start a female guild," Emily replied as she move to sit on the armchair. "But first, why don't I hear your story?"


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5- Change and Feelings

Lucy's P.O.V:

"I understand that," Emily stated. I sat on the other armchair, which is the right one, just staring down at my black combat boots. I could feel that my face is completely frozen and blank, nobody could deduct what I'm feeling in the inside.

I had just explained to Emily about why I left, about Fairy Tail and Team Natsu, along with the little 'incident'. She just nodded her head a few times, not bothering to stop me mid-sentence, she's surprisingly a good listener and she's very understanding. She did suffer a bad past, being abused and hunted down.

"But other than that... I'm trying to forget what had happened. Off to another topic, you want to make your own guild?" I asked, my eyes darted over to Emily's. She smiled and nodded, shifting her cross-legged position and placing a hand on her lap like a noble lady would usually do.

"I've been thinking of it for a while, and like I said before, it can be really lonely just living here with no one to talk to. Before meeting you, I just trained and trained, sometimes going into town to buy groceries and new clothes," she replied.

"How did you build this house then? It's like a mansion," I commented, staring at the high ceilings.

"I have a friend, we built it together when we were little, actually she's the one who mostly did built it. She has the power of telekinesis, very powerful kind of magic. She died shortly after my father first abused me," Emily explained, a hint of agony and sadness in her voice.

"Sorry," I mumbled under my breath.

"Don't, I don't like people pitying me. It's not even your fault, she died in a boating accident, the ship she was on sank because of a storm," Emily said. "So, anyways... Other than improving yourself, what do you plan on doing?"

"Changing my appearance and identity, the more the better. Maybe change my go-lucky personality."

"That could be arranged," Emily did a small grin and I knew she was up to something. "But before that, where do you plan on living?"

My mouth opened, then closed in an instant, I was thinking to just go camping in the night, but that would be too dangerous with creatures like that lion lurking around the forest.

"You could stay with me, but on one condition," Emily started. I stared at her with my eyebrows raised. "Would you like to help me or join my guild?"

"Sure! Of course!" I blurted out, I was grinning like crazy. I felt extremely happy, at least there's someone out there who knows exactly what I'm going through. "Wait, what did you say when I said to you I'm going to change my identity?"

With that, Emily smiled and I knew she was definitely, absolutely up to something. "Oh god..."

xX At Fairy Tail Xx

Natsu's P.O.V:

After me, Erza and ice freak handed the guild members the letters that Lucy wrote, everybody started crying, sobbing and sulking. The air is filled with agony, guilt and the heaving loss of a guild member. Gramps read out the letter addressed to every member of Fairy Tail and locked himself in his office when he gave us a speech about how he's disappointed with our behavior.

"My children... Every one of you has been raised, trained, socialised and meet new brothers and sisters in this place. Fairy Tail is for everyone, even ex-criminals could change sides and even when they think they would be unaccepted, we would welcome them. Lucy is just an innocent girl that done nothing wrong, yet you all failed my expectations. You've ignored her, most of you did, especially Team Natsu. You all promise to stick together, but you didn't keep that promise. I'm very disappointed."

Levy, Mirajane and Lisanna sat together on the bar, each of them sobbing, dried tears on their cheeks. From my spot with the rest of Team Natsu at the corner of the guild, I could smsalsa strong fragrance of salt. Tears. More and more tears.

Happy looked down at the ground next to me, he sniffed and rub his nose with the back of his paws.

Him, Wendy, Gajeel, Juvia and Charles went back to the guild when they heard the news that Lucy left. Juvia nearly cut me in half with her water slicer spell, but Gajeel beat her to it and punch me in the face with his iron arm thing. It happened half an hour before now, but the bruise on my cheek is still throbbing.

"If only we didn't agree to let Lucy go and hang out with her," Gray mumbled under his breath. He's still wearing his shirt and didn't strip yet.

"Lucy..." Happy whined a little, his ears drooped like a puppy.

Erza stared at her strawberry cheesecake with sadden eyes, her face is paler than usual and she's literally crushing the spoon in her armored hands. As for me, I just looked at the table, not even blinking, focusing on the little splinter of wood sitting on the middle. I have no idea how I felt like. My heart ached, rivaling the time when Igneel left, it hurts me to think about why Lucy left. I longed for her strawberry-vanilla scent, her golden blonde hair, wide chocolate eyes that makes me feel warm and loved if she stares at me. Most of all, I'll miss her presence, she makes me both calm and cheerful, excited and all fired up. It pains me if she isn't with me, or at least near me. This thought made me think, if we kick Lucy out of the Team, would she feel the same way this affects me now? Or would I feel the same if she'll be kicked out. No more hanging out and joking around with the blonde beauty I've grown to care? That's torture.

Wendy is kneeling down on the floor near the bar, being embraced by Cana, who's tracing circles on her back, telling her Lucy would be fine and that she'll visit us sometimes.

"She won't most likely," Laxus said as he leaned against the second floor railing, he probably Cana comforting Wendy. He doesn't look like he's been crying, but a hint of remorse is shown in the tone of his voice and face.

I gritted my teeth and the top half of my face is covered by my hair. Then it hit me like Laxus's lightning. I didn't just miss Lucy. I didn't just like her as a friend. I love Lucy Heartfilia...

xX Back at Emily's house Xx

Lucy's P.O.V:

I stared in shock at the girl in the mirror in front of me.

She's very beautiful, elegant and innocent-looking. Her eyes are cold and warm at the same time, seems impossible, but it's true.

"See," Emily place a hand on my shoulder. "You look stunning."

"How did you...?" My mouth is opened in shock.

About an hour ago, Emily led me to the second floor of the house. The place is even more breath-taking than the old Heartfilia mansion. We walked into a massive bedroom with white floors and dark bluish walls. At the end of the room is a balcony, and behind the glass doors is a pale square golden table topped with books along with a single candle.

Underneath the table is a rectangular burgundy carpet, and two polished white bookshelves stood side by side on the wall left of the table.

There's also a queen-size, four poster bed with lavender covers, another matching carpet underneath it, a door leading to a huge bathroom and a walk-in closet that could fit in my old apartment room. Emily had said I could stay here, and I couldn't believe my eyes and ears. There's a full body-length mirror inside the walk-in closet, and the wall is full of different doors, drawers or shelves. In the center of the room is a rectangular white table with make-up on top. Each door/drawers/shelves are filled with different kinds of shoes, outfits, etc.

I still continue to look at the glass mirror. The girl has a light complexion, with perfect curves, and a smooth oval porcelain face. She has shoulder-length straight hair with a few wavy strands, it looks a pure white but also an extremely pale, light blonde color up close. Along with sapphire-lavender orbs, she seems similar to a kind ice princess. It was me.

"I told you it could be arranged, never doubt my disguising skills," Emily winked and handed me a pair of short-heeled, knee-high, dark brown lace up boots.

I slip them on while sitting on the bed and stood back up again to take in my new appearance.

Emily had made me wear a sleeveless, button-up, collared white top with snowflake-like motifs on the bottom, a black band underneath it, and short lacy black skirt held up by a dark brown belt. Before that though, I took a warm shower and turns out Emily kept a whole bunch of different scented shampoos and soap. So now I smell like a mixture of lilac blossoms and mint.

"You're the best," I managed to exclaim as I turned to look at Emily. "No one will know I'm Lucy. Except you of course."

"You're welcome, but lastly, what's your name? You can't call yourself Lucy Heartfilia anymore."

That got me thinking, I held a finger to my chin as millions of female names raced to my mind. A light bulb clicked on top of my head and an idea popped into my mind.

"I've got it!"

**XXX Author's Corner XXX**

CrystalDT: Hey, I've been thinking of names for Lucy's new identity and I want you to vote which name do you think is best.

1. Yukihime (Snow princess)

2. Amelia

3. Angelise

4. Jessica

5. Isabella (Bella for short or Belle)

6. Crystalise

7. Falisia

CrystalDT: So write your suggested names in reviews. Don't forget, this is important!

Lucy: P.S; CrystalDT Angel doesn't own Fairy Tail!


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6- Regretting

Natsu's P.O.V:

I kicked the large rock, making it fly to a tree. My toes hurt after the impact and I cursed under my breath, but not just because of the impact.

_'I'm so dumb! Why didn't I notice it earlier?! I can see why people call me dense!' _I thought to myself before punching a maple tree. It shook and some of the leaves fell down to the ground, a leaf fell onto my head and I swatted it away with my free hand.

Right now, I'm in the park, it's already late in the evening, and the sky is a mixture of a vibrant orange, navy and violet. Bright twinkling stars made their way across the veil of darkness and stood out among the other colors. There isn't anyone here. It was quiet and sincere.

Making my way across the grass, I sat down in front of the sapphire lake and buried my head in my hands. They had started bleeding after I hit the tree and the scarlet color tainted a few strands of my hair. I groaned and gritted my teeth, trying to ignore the urge to destroy the whole civilization and beat up the first person I see. Somehow, I'm feeling kind of happy because I realized that I love Lucy and that I would be able to see her again someday if I search for her.

A snap sounded from behind a blueberry bush and my head snapped up.

_'Luce!' _I jumped up, only to see a rabbit hopping out from the hedge. The smile that formed in my lips turn back into a frown and I went towards a tree. This time, I didn't bother to hit it, instead I sat down underneath it and stared up at the skies. My nose sniffed at the different scents around me, including the smell of fresh fruits, freshly cut grass and the watery scent of the lake.

The faint smell of Lucy's strawberry-vanilla shampoo and soap could still be smelt from her apartment. It's almost fading away.

Hours ticked by, but it felt like centuries, centuries since I've last seen Lucy's face, all smiling and cheerful. I knew it's impossible to see her like that again after what I've done to her, even though Master said that we're not allowed to search for her whereabouts, I can't help but thought of a plan to look for her.

What if Lucy gets hurt? What if she exiled herself from Fiore and move to a different country! I can't allow that, as long as Lucy is still in this continent and close to Magnolia, I'll know she'll be safe.

Suddenly, a new smell filled the air and I sniffed, holding back a growl, when I noticed that it is Loke. Wait, Loke! If he's here, Lucy must be nearby, she can't be far behind.

"Loke!" I shot up and turned around. Loke is in his normal suit clothing, his face is between pissed and madness.

"Why did you do it?! Lucy isn't weak!"

"I know she isn't!" I shouted. "I wasn't thinking about the consequences before!"

"There's no consequence! There's only great pain and loss!" Loke replied back other a sneer and I couldn't think of anything to fight back.

All of the feelings I've experienced since the past day rushed back to me and there's only one word to describe it. Regret. Regret... And more regret.

"How is she?" I choked out, my eyes narrowed, almost squinting shut. I could hear Loke sigh.

"Fine."

"Be more specific!" I exclaimed.

"She's strong and healthy alright! Happy?" Loke said in an annoyed tone but I don't blame him. There's a moment of silence.

I shifted my position so I'm standing straight and ended up landing on the muddy, green ground on my knees. My knees must have buckled underneath me. I punch the earth with my right hand and splashes of mud contacted with my cheeks. I just want to run and yell to the world that I need Lucy back.

Loke just stood there, hesitantly taking a step towards me and fiddling with his glasses.

"What do you plan on doing?"

"I'm going to get her back. Sooner or later."

xX In Fairy Hills Xx

Erza's P.O.V:

I stared at the slice of strawberry cake on the table. I've lost my appetite since noon, yet Juvia gave the dessert to me the moment I sat on the plush blue chair in her bedroom.

Juvia just looked down at the table, no emotion crossed her face and eyes and she was neither frowning nor smiling, even though Gray is sitting right next to me. I tightened my grip on the white glass teacup in my hands, but not hard enough for me to crack it. After a moment, I sipped on the peppermint tea that had already turned cold.

Hours after the guild's breakdown and the news of Lucy leaving, Natsu stormed out of Fairy Tail, leaving me, Gray and Happy just sitting on the table. Happy decided to go and mourn with Wendy and Charles, probably wanting to spend the night with them rather than Natsu. While me and Gray left a few minutes after the blue exceed, wanting to go and search for the fire dragon slayer, only to be confronted by Juvia.

_Xx Flashback xX_

_"Natsu!" I shouted. _

_Me and Gray passed a few houses as we walk down the street. The lamposts were already lit up and the sun is about to go down. Sighing, I stopped and shook my head. Gray slipped into an alleyway and I could hear the echoes of Natsu's name. _

_"We'll never find him like this," I whispered to myself, massaging my temples. I've been having headaches lately, but I haven't swallow any painkillers. I was planning to buy some yesterday, however I encountered my favorite bakery and right then and there, my stomach growled. So I ended up eating a whole strawberry pound cake covered in powdered sugar and a souffle. _

_Then I heard footsteps coming behind me and my reflexes kicks in. _

_I turned around, using my magic to wield a sword in my left hand, shifting my position into a fighting stance. Seconds later, Juvia walked down the street I was in and I immediately made my blade disappeared. _

_"What are you doing here?" Juvia asked. Her voice is surprisingly cold, stern and full of sympathy. _

_"Looking for Natsu," I said. Minutes ticked by..._

_"Well, flame brain isn't here," Gray broke the silence. He crept out of the alley, stopping when he sees Juvia's blank, pale face. _

_"Juvia?" _

_"You need to get inside," Juvia stated, ignoring Gray, though a tint of rosy pink brushed her cheeks. "Let's go somewhere else. Somewhere private. Erza, you're the head girl, So you can let Gray-sa- I mean Gray inside Fairy Hills."_

_Xx End of Flashback xX_

Now here all are. Me, letting Gray inside the dorm for the _first _and most probably the _last _time, Juvia inviting us to her room and us sitting down together to have tea.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the clock strikes 5:30 p.m. Gray cleared his throat and Juvia looked at him with a raised eyebrow. It's surprising to see that Juvia would act normally around Gray, but she have a reason to act differently now.

"So..." Gray trailed off.

"So what, Gray? There isn't anything you could change about this matter. I just realized it now, but, you aren't that great to my eyes anymore. Lucy isn't weak and even Juvia knows it. No, I definitely know it. Think before you act next time. You know, if there ever is a next time," Juvia burst out. She didn't even speak in third person!

With that, Gray tightened his jaw, but not before staring wildly at the water mage. It must have been a shock to him too now that Juvia has changed so much in less than a day.

"You guys are suppose to be nakama," Juvia added. She grabbed her cup and drank the last of her tea, gripping the handle with her fingers tighter than mine did.

"We know," I mumbled, so very low I'm not even sure if Gray and Juvia heard me or not.

"Yet you still betrayed her," Juvia commented, glancing at my cake and Gray's unfinished milkshake. "Are you two going to finish your treat or I'm going to have to throw them away?"

I took the metal spoon from the white China plate where the strawberry cake is sitting and began eating it slowly. Gray sipped his drink, faster than my eating pace and finished in less than three minutes. I'm done with both my tea and cake soon after. Juvia stood up and picked up the dishes, avoiding eye contact with us as she did so.

"Look," Gray started, grabbing Juvia's wrist. "We didn't mean to make Lucy leave, we totally regret it."

"But you did anyways. Now let go."

Gray did as he was told the second when Juvia glared at him through her eyelashes. Muttering under her breath, she went to her kitchen and dropped the dishes carefully into the sink. Walking back, she just stood in front of her window, staring out at the view.

"Why did you invite us here?" I asked the question that has been bugging me since the beginning.

"I just want to," Juvia shrugged. "And I have a question... What's the one word that can describe what you feel right now?"

Me and Gray looked at each other and I knew we are thinking the same thing...

**Xx-Author's Corner-xX**

CrystalDT: Hi and this is a chapter about Team Natsu, excluding Happy, and what they're going through. Hope you enjoyed it. By the way, please submit your votes/what name you like for Lucy. The list of names is in Chapter 5. Please submit and review because this is important. So far, Yukihime has the most votes. Here are the results so far:

1. Yukihime 4

2. Amelia 0

3. Angelise 2

4. Jessica 0

5. Isabella 1

6. Crystalise 3

7. Falisia 0

8. Others 2

CrystalDT: So vote and review!


	8. Chapter 7

CrystalDT: Hello everyone, just letting you know that the vote for Lucy's new name is officially close. The winner name would be mentioned in this chapter.

~Chapter 7~

Chapter 7- First Month Training and Reveal

Lucy's P.O.V:

It's been a month since I encountered Emily in the forest, where she saved me from that lion-like creature, and I'm still grateful for that.

The day after I changed my appearance, Emily surprised me by leading me to a plain training ground behind the mansion. She told me that she would train me to an extent until I'm sure I'm strong enough to take on Team Natsu, maybe even Laxus, but that sounds impossible from where my abilities stand right now.

First day of training, Emily had me run 50 laps around the valley for starters and I almost faint by the fourth lap. She just shook her head and told me that if a monster is chasing me, I've got to be able to run at least 10 whole laps.

So I ran and ran, extremely exhausted by the time I finished the 50th round and collapsed on the training ground. It took me more than an hour and I was sweating bullets.

Next, I had to learn how to fight hand-to-hand properly; that includes learning how to punch, kick, martial arts, elbowing or kneeing people and fixing my reflexes.

Emily made me repeat every single move I learnt till I get it right and able to land a few punch or kicks at her. Yeah, that's right. We sparred and fought for 15 rounds, each time I grew more frustrated and that helped me to be more swift. At the end, I kneed Emily in her stomach twice and punch her face once. But I know it's not good enough for me and her so after eating dinner, which Emily cooked by herself, I head to the training grounds again and fought hand-to-hand with the dummies that Emily put as practice.

It took me an hour to be able to defeat, dodge and hit every 30 dummies in training.

After that, Emily asked me if I want to test out my abilities with her again and I agreed. We each land at least one punch at each other before I felt a wave of nausea and tiredness coming over me, making me faint.

The next day is the same and we continued till I manage to get the upper hand. Emily is very quick and strong, she pushed a large boulder with her hands without having to break a sweat! Anyways, she helped me improve my magic, by increasing my magic capacity and I managed to summon 3 spirits at once. But even that makes me kind of tired and I could only hold on for 15 minutes.

Loke also appeared from time to time to help me train and gives me advice on how to improve my celestial spirits. This includes combining two attacks at once and having my spirits train with me to defeat Emily. She told me that she masters two kinds of magic; requip, but only weapons, and nature magic.

During the days that we trained, I would spend around 3 extra hours after dinner learning to strengthen my spirits' attacks and powers.

Aquarius once swept me away when she did her wave attack that now can go through a longer distance and have more extra force in it. Luckily, Emily helped me by creating a rope of thorns to lift me up from the attack.

Bad news is that she only saved me once, telling me that if I want to have good balance, I need to survive Aquarius's attack by not being swept away next time.

Good thing is that I managed to survive it when Aquarius send her wave attack the ninth time.

I also learn to combine Urano Metria with Celestise's, the dragon spirit's, celestial roar attack. It turned out to be a very powerful spell and Emily told me to use it only if it's necessary. But I honestly think that she's just pissed off because the attack destroyed the backyard of the mansion. (If you don't remember Celestise, check the prologue chapter)

Emily fixed the place with her nature magic though, and I remembered being amazed by the new flower field that she made. It's all full of short trimmed grasses, white lilies, lavender and red and pink roses. The light pink one is my favorite of all. The rose petals seem to be lined with tiny diamonds and other jewels, since they sparkle in the sunlight and also the moonlight.

Today is the last day of the month, and I'm feeling kind of satisfied with my progress, Emily even said that I'm quite a quick learner and that she would be able to teach me new forms of magic after I truly mastered hand-to-hand combat along with my celestial spirit magic.

A breeze swept over me and my forehead is wet from the beads of sweats that had formed. Me and Emily are fighting each other again and we were pretty much tied, which frustrated me like crazy.

My dyed white hair is tied into a high ponytail and I readied myself to attack Emily once again.

For a month, I've been training for a month and it's time to pay off all of my hard work.

I ran towards Emily and attempted to punch her in the face, she dodged it but got hit as I swung my leg to her stomach.

"You've gotten much better at this," Emily said once she fell to the ground, I also fell on my knees from exhaustion. We've been fighting for an hour and kept sending strong and swift attacks all that time. Emily is stronger than before and I thought she also improved during my training. However, a part of me thinks she's just holding back until I truly mastered combat fighting.

"Let's take a 30-minute break," Emily stated. She stood back up and offered me her hand, which I took gladly.

"Make that 20 minutes."

"Eager, are we?" Emily asked with a slight smile.

We've both gotten closer ever since she saved me in the forest. I found out that Emily is a mixture of both Erza and Mirajane, but more calmer and hard-working. Her favorite color is red and green, which makes sense since she enjoyed walking around the forest in her spare time and she does live near one.

At the second week of the month, I found out that Emily's birthday is on the 7th of January and she'll be turning 18 soon enough. (By the way it's currently September, and Lucy is still 17 years old)

I've been thinking of buying her a new weapon or something like that or maybe a new set of nice clothes. She's been wanting to go and buy some shirts and pants lately, but the town is currently celebrating the annual Magical Fair Festival, and Emily prefers to shop in peace.

Speaking of the festival, I begged Emily to take us there and sneak a peak on the party, but she said I needed to focus in my training. I can't say she's being unreasonable, and I've been wanting to learn new kinds of magic as fast as I could. Besides, Emily gave me a bracelet for me to wear as the way of saying 'sorry we can't go to the festival'. It's very beautiful but simple at the same time.

For starters, the bracelet is made from a silverish string with snowflake, several zodiac signs, flowers, butterflies and heart-shaped colorful crystal charms hanging from it. The sequence of the charms always goes in a pattern; the snowflake starts first, followed by a zodiac sign, then a heart, another zodiac sign, a flower, zodiac sign, butterfly, zodiac sign and so on. All of the charms are differently colored, except for the snowflakes, their transparent with a hint of white in them and the flowers are all a vibrant crystal blue, purple or white. The hearts are colorful, but four out of 9 of them are silver.

Anyways, Emily and me walked back towards the mansion, hoping to eat some food before we continue fighting again.

I plopped down onto the couch, while Emily took out what I think is a plate of ham and cheese sandwiches. She got out a couple of bottled water and tossed one to me after sitting on one of the armchairs.

"Thanks," I replied. I opened the plastic bottle and drank the cold liquid, feeling refreshed. That's when I noticed a newspaper on the coffee table.

Raising my eyebrows, I reached for it and stared blankly at the page. Emily don't normally read newspapers or girly magazines, in fact, she never really does. My eyes scan the paper and I noticed a few words are circled in the second article. Slowly, I read the news, reading it aloud:

"Report: Missing 13 year old girl

After a fire caused by an explosion, 7 houses are badly burnt in Wisteryn Road, Clover Town, with little to no survivors. This including a young girl that ran away when the police caught sight of her just standing at the back of one of the houses. The girl's name and identity is unknown as the neighbors didn't get a chance to ask her who she is. Apparently, the girl has been living in the street for over 5 years, with a man that's revealed to be a dark mage. After a lot of time interrogating the person, the Magic Council said that the girl is a certain 'prisoner' that's caught by the man 7 years earlier.

Furthermore, it has been two days since the fire incident and there has been no news about the missing and lost girl. The Council set up posters to contact them when someone should find a little female who is suspiciously wandering around.

She's last seen in Magnolia and Lahar, who works in the Magic Council has retrieved a picture of her that he said to must have been taken just recently."

The words that are circled are 'missing', 'girl', 'Clover Town', 'Mage', 'two days' and 'Magnolia'. I couldn't help but feel curious at this. I turned my attention to the picture and took in all of the girl's characteristics.

She has light, fair skin with straight auburn brown hair reaching till her mid-back and green eyes like Emily, except it's filled with sadness, fear and loss of hope. Her oval face is paler than her limbs, with a fading scar on her left cheek, looking at this makes my blood boil in rage.

How could someone treat her like this and imprison her?!

I continued inspecting the picture and studied every single detail. The 13 year old is standing in front of a polished black-painted wooden wall and she's wearing a sleeveless, thigh-length white dress covered by a short-sleeve crimson cardigan, black tights and red flats. Somehow, she looks very familiar, but I couldn't think of anybody I know or met that looks like her.

Emily must've noticed my look as she lowered her head and stared at the newspaper in wonder.

"Interested in that, Yukihime?" She used my new name that I made up when I changed my appearance. Emily doesn't use my new name often, except when she's really serious. There's something wrong. Again, she seems as if she could read my mind, she answered,"That girl... She's my little sister."

"Your little sister?!"

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx~Author's Corner~xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

CrystalDT: How was it? Please review and thank you for those who bothered to vote for Lucy's new name. But that's only the first name, there has been a tie between two names and so, Lucy's new full name would be revealed in another chapter. Also, so sorry for not updating for a while.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8- More About The Past

Lucy's P.O.V:

For what seems like forever, I continue to stare at Emily with wide eyes and she just looked down, suddenly interested in her shoes.

That little bit of information made me really shocked and I couldn't believe my ears. If she does have a little sister, why didn't she say something to me earlier? But I guess I couldn't blame her, she has trust issues ever since her father abused her and I know I couldn't trust someone as easily as I did before.

"She's been missing, like the newspaper had said, for 7 years. By the time I found out, I searched for her everywhere, my dad even let me skip training to try and find her. But... Even after immense research and theories, I couldn't find anything. Not a single clue and I began to think for the worse. It's not until just recently did I find this article. Before you woke up, I had to go and buy some more groceries so I went to Hosenka. There, I visited a newspaper stand and managed to stumble across the news. I immediately got back and started reading the info a few minutes before you came down and we started training as usual," Emily explained. "Sorry."

I blinked. Taking it all in. Then I shook my head, grabbing Emily's hands. "No, you don't have to apologise. No one can blame you. It must hurt to talk about your sister."

Emily nodded and I could see she cared for her very much. I for one, would have a major breakdown if I had a sister and found out that my she's missing. Of course I technically have a little sister, but she got turned back to her original form by Midnight from the Reborn Oracion Seis.

"Rina."

My head shot up and I glanced at Emily questioningly. "Rina?"

"My sister's name. Rina Farris. Farris is our family name," Emily stated, brushing a lock of her black hair behind her ear. She sighed inwardly and I unknowingly leaned in to what I suspect is that Emily's finally going to tell me all about 'Rina'.

"When I'm around 5 years old, my mother gave birth to Rina. She has my mom's hair and eyes, emerald ones like mine. We always played together and both of us showed an interest in magic. While I wanted to learn about requip magic, Rina wants to learn about dragons. For her birthday, I would buy her a book about ancient dragons and another that shows a record of dragon sightings all over Fiore.

"She's very fascinated by these creatures and she would get excited if she meets a first generation dragon slayer, like your old comrades," Emily continued while looking at me. I knew she's talking about Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy.

"I took care and shielded her from danger in every way possible, but when our mother died... My father told me to get stronger and also shouted at Rina to learn magic too if she doesn't want me protecting her back all the time. That's when I realized I need to stay away from Rina so our father won't get angry with her and urge her to train like I did. "However, this only made it worse. Dad locked Rina in her room and told her to practice some kind of 'useful' magic and after two hours, he would see how much Rina had improved. It's been going like this for a year and I finally stood up to my father. I told him to stop, but he ignored me. I continued talking to him day after day when Rina is with us. Then, I decided that we should run away because I'm sick of my father's ways. So I took Rina with me and we managed to go as far as our aunt's house. We found out that Aunt Clara is off to another town and the house is locked. Since it was night time, me and Rina camp underneath a tree near the woods next to our aunt's home. The next day when I woke up, I saw Rina being dragged by a cloaked figure. I tried fighting him, but ended up being knocked over.

"I panicked and search around. Before I knew it, I went back to Hargeon and begged my father to help. He let me skip training and send a letter to the council about Rina's disappearance. For months, I look around every corner of every town, including doing research and found nothing. Not a single trace. It was a dead end. I cried inside my room and for the first time since mother's death, dad hugged me until I slept. I promised to become stronger after that," Emily took a deep breath as she finished the story.

"Don't worry," I exclaimed a few seconds later. I want to help Emily find her sister and I couldn't stand seeing someone else losing a family member. It hurts 100 times more than being betrayed when both your parents died, whether you're there with them or not.

"What should I do?" Emily run a hand through her spill of dark, black hair.

"Find her of course. And I'm going to help," I jumped up and smiled at the astounded 17 year old girl.

Then I almost fell to the floor as Emily hugged me so tightly, which could make Erza's feel weak and effortless. "Thank you."

"A-Alright," I push away from Emily. "It's no problem. But we need to pack our things and finish our snacks before we go and search for Rina. We better be prepared!"

_xX At Hargeon Town Xx_

Normal P.O.V:

"You'll have to pay 10, 000 jewels if you want to buy this bread or you're going to be kicked out!" A man around 5'11 feet tall wearing a pair of black trousers, a white polo shirt and a grey apron growled at the girl in front of him.

"I only have 5, 000 jewels."

"Then too bad, young lady. You'll need to buy somewhere else. Now scram!" the man shouted. His face is full of annoyance and rage, he stomp his feet and turn around to go back to the bakery.

"Emily-nee... I only managed to get 25, 000 jewels from the man who kidnapped me, and I tried my best to save it for as long as possible. Please come soon," the girl clasp her hands together and sighed for like the millionth time that day. "I hope that father had changed and stop treating us like we're both useless and incapable of getting as strong as he wished us to be."

She held her upper right arm and walked along the road from where she came from. Hundreds of people had gathered and were running up and down the street.

The girl looked around and her eyes landed on a boy around 19 years old handing out brochures of the up and coming fireworks show. Others like him are trying to talk to the bypassers and at the same time, selling a bunch of snacks like potato chips, chocolate cookies and other eye-catching products.

Gathering up what little confidence she has left, the little teenage girl slowly approached the 19 year old and tug at his navy jacket.

"Excuse me. But do you know where to find the Farris manor? I only remembered that it's near a harbor."

The boy glance at her and wrinkled his forehead in confusion. "Yes. But why would a young girl like you visit some old ruins?"

"Ruins?"

"Yeah, the manor caught on fire years ago, there are apparently no survivors."

"W-What?" the girl's hood lowered, now covering half of her face. Tears are threatening to spill out of her eyes. Her hands trembled and she balled them into fists. Her nails dig into her palm and her knuckles turned white.

After a second, the boy looked at the girl in worry. "Hey, you alright? Why don't you go and see the fireworks show tonight? That'll surely cheer you up."

"No, I'm fine. I'm going to another town anyways."

"Well then what's your name?"

"Rina... Rina Farris," the girl told the boy.

"Oh... Sorry about the manor and your family."

"Don't worry about it," Rina concluded and walk as fast as she could. After all those years of waiting to come back home and be greeted by the smiling, tearful faces of Emily and their father, Rina could only cry at the loss of her family.

For 7 years, she's trapped in a small house with an abusive dark mage, who orders her around, and being yelled at if she did a single mistake whether she's washing the dishes or cleaning the rooms. She has gone through a lot and she's sick of it. The only good thing she experienced during her 'imprisonment' was that she gained the magic she has always wanted other than dragon slaying.

Sobbing silently, Rina took a sharp turn and ran towards the forest.

Everyday she dreamt of returning, everyday she hoped for the best. Almost tripping over the roots of a tree, Rina stopped and rub her eyes furiously.

Stretching out her arm to touch the large brown tree trunk next to her for support, Rina muttered under her breath. "Emily-nee..."

While she's mumbling to herself, the air was silent and not a single soul is wondering around. Not even a single animal or the signs of predators anywhere. However, the wind picked up and a gentle breeze swept over Rina. Opening her eyes that are now red from the rubbing with her hands, she stared at the sky and sighed.

"Lia. What are you doing?"

A low rumbling sound rang through the cluster of trees and a magnificent, massive dragon landed around 7 feet away from Rina. It has slanted eyes with cyan-colored irises and folded silk-like wings.

The dragon also has sky blue scales that fades into silver by the lower half of it's body.

"Comforting you."

"I don't need comforting, Lia. I'm fine," Rina insisted.

"You don't look fine," the dragon called Lia roared at the little girl, but she didn't flinch at the loud tone.

"The manor... It's been burned down. What should I do now?" Rina collapsed and landed on her knees.

Lia just stayed still as she closed her eyes. "I smell the scent of Emily. But it's faint."

"It's from the manor, but I'm surprised that Emily's scent is still lingering around. I thought it disappeared after the fire," Rina said quietly.

"No. It's not from your old house. It's from the forest at the border of Hosenka. She's still alive," Lia resonated and Rina glance up at her, looking both shocked and happy.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9- Family Reunion

Lucy's P.O.V:

"Are you sure you're fine with going back to Magnolia?" Emily asked me with concern. Her eyes look much more darker than before as we walk through the forest. We've been traveling for over 90 whole minutes and I've got to say, I feel like my toes are being crushed by a small, but sturdy log.

After a whole hour of packing, me and Emily decided to just bring a few extra pairs of clothes, 8 of the remaining sandwiches, 1,000,000 jewels, which seems a bit too much for me since we also have 100, 000 jewels each tucked away in our pockets, and extra weapons.

Once we talked about where we would search for Rina, Emily took out a backpack that you could store almost anything in. There, she put a large map of Fiore and another one- that is just as large- showing the towns of Hargeon, Clover Town, Magnolia and Hosenka.

Emily circled Magnolia, since it's where Rina was last seen and calculated the routes which she could have taken.

"She must be going somewhere near. Rina likes to play in the woods too."

So, I told Emily there's a forest near the border of Magnolia and Hargeon, and we're pretty much heading straight for it right now. I'm actually a bit nervous going back to Magnolia, it's true that I already changed my appearance and scent, but what if somehow we bumped into a Fairy Tail member and he/she recognizes me? The thought send a flurry of incidents that could happen. If Team Natsu and me and Emily found each other on the way, would they harrass me and call me weak again? Levy would never forgive me for leaving , so I hope I don't bump into her either, but I already miss hanging out with that little bluenette.

But I'm not going to tell Emily this, other than my worries, I'm ready to go back.

"Yeah. Don't worry about it," I replied looking at my new found friend that I had just met over a month ago. She stared at me for a while then turn her head around to look at the way we're going.

"I'm still worried even though you said that."

"Try not to," I added, twirling a strand of my white hair with my fingers and fixed the position of my black headband. I started wearing them a week ago and I liked to use it with my clothes, that are now mostly dark colors.

"Are we sure we're going the right way? We're suppose to go east," I continued.

"I'm sure, I know these parts. Don't worry, Yuki," Emily stated.

"I'm still worried even though you said that," I said, saying the same thing Emily did just seconds ago. She turned to look at me and I swear I saw an annoyed look in her eyes, but also somewhat of amusement.

"Yukihime Celtia Crystalise! Quit playing, we're here to look for a missing 13 year old girl that I haven't seen for many years!"

"Sorry," I sweatdropped as Emily gave me a glare, using my new full name. (Yukihime Celtia Crystalise is Lucy's name, I just thought of a middle name and 'Celtia' just popped into my mind)

The forest paths were bumpy like they stuff some kind of rocks underneath and the air was filled with a fresh, earthy smell. I could barely smell the vanilla from the white vanilla flower bush nearby. While training me, Emily told me all about the plants and animals she had encountered while staying here; how she recognize some of them and how the ones that she doesn't know were very strange but also wonderfully exotic-looking.

Turning around to go to the right, Emily put a hand into her limitless-supply space shoulder bag and took out the newspaper with Rina's picture on it again. I shot her a sympathetic smile that I'm sure she hadn't even noticed, and continue reading the article. She sighed.

For every half an hour, Emily would check the newspaper and examine Rina's picture on it, seeing how much she has changed over the past 7 years.

I'm actually curious as to how Rina was like when she's still a little kid. Probably a lighter shade of auburn hair, wider eyes and puffier cheeks, all stubborn and adorable. This image only made me think harder and harder.

"We're here," Emily called out and I glance over her shoulder to see a bare land made up of stone bricks and a short black metal gate-like border covering at least half a kilometer straight to the sides. "Hargeon town."

"It looks much more different than I remembered," I beamed.

"That's because you've never been to the south border, it's fairly less busier than the center of the town," Emily pointed out, grabbing a boat load of papers from her bag and walking towards the gates.

"Wait!" I jogged, catching up to her then stared at the pile of white parchment paper with black ink written all over it. "What's that for?"

"Letters. I know a guy from the Hargeon border security guards, I come here around 4 times a year to get extra supplies and things. I'm a usual visitor and they'll surely let me in."

"Then why bring letters?"

"Because everytime I get back, I need to report on the forest areas and conditions. That's a deal I made with the guards if I want to stay permanently in the forest. Besides, I need to inform them about the specifics of my guild," Emily concluded.

"Oh, I remember. Have you decided what to name your guild?"

"Not yet," Emily simply replied and I shut my mouth after that.

Emily and I never really talk about the ideas of her guild, but we both knew it has to have more than fifteen members to make it official. In my head, I'm secretly thinking of names that might fit, but nothing came up. Maybe if we find Emily's sister, she would be our third member and we'll slowly gain more mages for the guild.

"Emily!" A masculine voice called out. It sounds strained and a hint of panic in it.

"John! What's wrong?" Emily exclaimed as a man around his mid to late-twenties ran towards our direction. His face was pale, much paler than the skin complexion of his limbs and covering most of his body is an outfit that looks like the Magic Council's guard clothes. Thinking of the council reminds me of Lahar and Doranbolt or Mest for short, we haven't bump into them ever since before the S-Class exams. Their clothes matches with the guard named John, except his cloak is green rather than blue.

"A- d-dra-dragon! Such a fierce creature, appeared near the border earlier, only a few saw it. Yer and yer friend ought to not come back to the forest till tomorrow! For safety reasons! Yer might not believe this, but that's not the point!" John shouted, his accent laying thick.

"Dragon?" I stared in shock at the man who just nodded his head. "But they're all gone! Ever since X777!"

"That's the confusing part," John added.

"Emily? What are we suppose to do now?" I asked. This is all making me worried. A dragon? How is that possible?

"We follow it," Emily said and with the speed of light, streaked across the land and disappeared in a cluster of wild greens.

"Follow it?!" I screamed after her and sprinted back to the forest. What is Emily thinking? Follow a creature that's supposed to be extinct for like 14 years? I tried thinking of different theories. Time traveling may be a bit too crazy. Maybe they came back through magic portals? But who would do that? Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy won't be able to summon back their dragons like that.

There's only three things flashing back and forth in my mind while I tried to relentlessly catch up to Emily. And those things are Rina, dragons, Fairy Tail. Then I remembered, Emily said Rina was fascinated by dragons and wanted to learn magic related to it.

"Rina!" I whispered to myself and managed to run side-by-side with Emily. She had a hard face on, one that shows determination to reach out to something. Something important. Her eyes narrowed in concentration, no emotions at all. "You think-"

"Yes," Emily stated and continued to run like she has no problem running all day long just to find her sister somewhere with a dragon, that we're not familiar with.

We passed thousand of trees and it felt like every step we took, we could actually feel Rina's presence and tha dragon getting closer and closer. This makes me increase my speed, so fast that you would think we're just a fury of streaks, and we managed to reach a fork in the forest path.

It was quiet.

There's two roads. One leading to the left and the other to the right.

By now, I was panting a bit since we ran for, what I think is, 2 miles straight. Emily barely huffed as she sprinted to the right.

"You've got to be kidding me," I muttered under my breath as I followed her.

For another mile we kept jumping over rocks and fallen trunks of trees, careful not to bump into hanging tangled vines. Sometimes I slipped, but regain my posture a second later, thanks to my balance training. Finally, we stopped in a clearing a bit smaller than ours and I held my breath.

In the middle of the area is a gigantic dragon standing in front of a girl with auburn hair. She had a worried and surprised look on her face, but she doesn't seem to notice us.

"Rina!" Emily yelled out and I almost jumped at this.

"There she is," the dragon said. At first, I'm confused, than I thought back about dragon's sense of smell and hearing. It must have sensed us coming.

The girl- Rina- turned around and looked at Emily. Her worried look changed into one of joy and tears formed in her eyes.

"Onee-san!"

Emily ran forward, not minding the dragon, and hugged Rina so tightly, that I'm sure she couldn't breath at all. She didn't seem to care as she hugged Emily back. That's the scene that I would never forget in my life...


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10- Story

Lucy's P.O.V:

"You're okay, right?" Emily asked the little auburn-haired girl. She nodded and sighed in exasperation. Clearly she's not enjoying Emily asking her if she's fine all the time.

"Yes, I am."

"Relax, Em. She has no bruises, no cuts, there's nothing to worry about here," I commented.

The three of us were sitting in the living room of our mansion, me relaxing on the armchair while Rina and Emily were both on the couch.

After the reunion of the two sisters, we all went back to the forest in Hosenka and managed to reach the valley before sundown. Emily had prepared an extra room for Rina and some clothes for her to change into.

By the way, me and Emily learned that the dragon that was with Rina was a spirit summoned by her through her magic. I was a bit surprised actually. Who knew that a 13 year old teenager would be able to master a type of magic that allows the user to summon dragons, which could either destroy an entire city or guard it from dark forces?

I'm still shocked by it, but restrain myself from expressing what I'm feeling right then and there.

"But after 7 years-" Emily started but was interrupted by Rina.

"I already forgot about the pain. I'm perfectly healthy, both physically and mentally."

"Then... Are you fine if you explain to us what exactly happened?" I was curious and worried. I'm pretty sure what Rina experienced is something no one can imagine. What kind of things does a dark Mage do to a little girl? How did he treat her? What does a Mage like that want with her?

"Yes," Rina managed to choke out after a moment of silence.

"You sure? You don't need to push yourself," Emily hugged her sister tightly, looking at her face.

"Of course I'm sure."

Straightening her back, Rina brush a loose strand of her hair away from her face and glance at the glass clock hanging on the wall.

"This is how it all started..."

_~~Flashback~~_

_It was a gloomy night. The sky was a dark shade of blue that faded to a deep black color. A few twinkling stars sparkled like golden glitter here and there, but other than that, it's just a veil of complete darkness._

_"She'll be perfect," a figure said behind a cluster of trees. Her voice sounded cold and distant, with a hint of innocence in it that could easily trick people into believing that the sound belongs to a damsel in distress._

_"Definitely," another figure hissed, but this time it belonged to a man around his early twenties. Emotionless navy eyes scanned the little girl that lay on the ground next to a tall, thick tree._

_"Go on," the feminine voice urged and the male figure dashed towards the girl. Next to her was an older-looking girl with black hair. They were both sleeping soundlessly, not taking notice of the figure that quietly grabbed the younger female... Rina. She moved her arms around a bit, rubbing her eyes with her right hand and opened her mouth like she's about to say something. _

_"Go back to sleep," the man stated and grabbed the wrist of Rina. _

_"Nee-san. Is Auntie here already?" _

_"She'll be here soon."_

_Opening her sleepy eyes, Rina blinked and looked straight at the figure. His face was covered by the hood of his red cloak and a parchment-looking thing was strapped onto his belt just above the hips. He shot her a warning glance and continued stalking into the shadows. _

_"Nee-san!" Rina tried to shout but a big hand covered her mouth. _

_" Quiet. I'm not going to hurt you if you just stay quiet," the man growled lowly._

_"Who are you?" Rina whispered. _

_"I can't tell you my real name. Call me James."_

_~In the Morning~_

_Rina blinked a few times, adjusting to the blinding light. _

_She felt bed sheets under her hands and gripped them like her life depends on it. She slowly opened her tired, droopy eyes and looked around the room she was at._

_It was fairly large, fitted for two people, with dull grey walls and wooden floors. There was a small transparent window next to the queen-sized bed Rina was laying on, rays of golden sunshine streamed through the glass. A tiny black desk sat on the left hand corner of the room, behind it was a matching colored chair. _

_A vase was placed on the table, inside it were a bunch of fake red roses. Rina scrunch up her nose and jumped out of the bed._

_She couldn't remember how she got there, all she could recall from last night were a bunch of jumbled images of the night and of Emily. Maybe she was in her aunt's house, who knows? But then Rina recollected the memories of her auntie's home. The walls were all brightly colored, not a single dull paint on the walls and the furniture were all floral-patterned. _

_While thinking about that, she noticed the cushions were messily made and sewn, but it seems to be made of satin or silk. The black material that the bed sheets were made of felt very velvety and Rina ignored the urge to cuddle it. _

_Going towards the white-painted door, she grabbed the handle and as quietly as she could, slipped out of the room._

_The halls were overlooming with shadows, only two small lamps lit up the path. Rina took a step towards the right, only to see that it's a dead end. Her room must be the last one. Without wasting another minute, she sprinted towards the left. Honestly, she was frightened and scared. She missed her sister already. _

_Taking a turn to the right, Rina nearly slipped and tumbled on the flight of stairs if it weren't for her grip on the black metal railing. Catching her breath that she didn't knew she was holding, Rina checked her surroundings with fear and curiosity. _

_Like the room she was in, the walls were grey but this one was around a shade darker. _

_Every step she took, the wooden beams that made up the floors would creak and croak. The ceiling was white and rusty with age. _

_Rina stared at the stairs and nearly gasped when heavy footsteps could be heard from the bottom level. She panicked and fear washed over her. She ran towards a random door on the right and opened it, entering the room and partially closed the entrance. Rina made sure she's concealed before peeping through the gap between the door and the wall. She gulped and hugged her tiny figure with her arms. _

_"We still need-" _

_"I'll take care of it." _

_"Don't scare her that much." _

_"I won't." _

_Heart thumping, Rina tilted her head. _

_Suddenly, as if an explosion occurred inside her head, Rina remembered the man who took her the other night and carried her away from Emily. _

_"Oh no..." _

_"What do you think you're doing?" A woman asked and opened the door of the room where Rina was hiding. "Come here." _

_~Around a year later~_

_"Now just stay still," 'James' ordered and Rina shut her eyes. _

_She sat under the mahogany kitchen table, her left arm outstretched in front of her. James pricked her finger with a needle and a drop of blood fell on the small cup under Rina's long, pale arm. _

_"There."_

_"What's that for?" Rina asked and immediately clutched her hand with her other one the second James released it. _

_"Don't ask me. This is secret. If you ever mention this anymore, I'll surely make you sleep in the attic." _

_"A-Alright," Rina shivered and a sudden burst of magic power pulsed through her veins. _

_James exited the room and Rina gasped at the pang in her chest. She sat, huddled on the floor, afraid to move._

_Rina glance at the door, she could hear James conversing with a woman, but she didn't dare to walk out and eavesdrop their chat. She was busy closing her eyes and trying to drown the pain that started spreading throughout her body. _

_"Did you do it?" The woman asked. She had an oval face with a light skin tone, straight, shoulder-length, brilliant orange hair and a pair of wide black eyes. Excluding her face and some grey high heels, a dark green cloak covered her whole appearance. She's the same figure that night when Rina was kidnapped. _

_"Yes," James replied._

_"Now we just need to rebuild the R-System and Zeref would be revived." _

_~Three Years After That~_

_Rina sighed as she wiped the cover of the book with an old rag. She sighed. _

_James had told her to clean the library while he's out and it always took such a long time. _

_The library is located at the first floor of the house, next to the living room through a hidden door behind the bookshelf. James wanted it to keep it secret and private, even though no one ever comes there, except for that mysterious lady that always visited the household once every few weeks. _

_Everyday, she would wait in the gardens then go to the living room to talk to James. After that, she would go to the library and check the different kinds of books. _

_Rina wiped her forehead and huffed. She so badly wanted to go outside, but she's not allowed to; not even to say hi to the neighbors when they knock on the door or to water the plants that were probably already dead by then. The only thing Rina got to do was cook, clean, read a few books, daydream, watch the clouds as it passes by and rearrange the flowers in the vases. One time James had bought her a little teddy bear to play with, but when she opened the door to go to the front yard, James took the teddy away and never bought her a toy again._

_Putting the book she was cleaning back to it'a original place, Rina accidentally knocked over an antique one from the shelves and caught it before it fell to the ground. _

_Just as she was about to place it back, the title caught her eye and she stared at the hard leather cover. It read: 'Ancient Dragon Techniques and Summoning Spells.' Flipping to the first page, Rina quietly murmured the list of contents. _

_"Introduction of dragon art magic, ancient dragon spells for amateurs, different kinds of dragon magic... How to summon a dragon?"_

_Looking around to check if James might be back already, Rina slipped the book into her jacket and continue brushing away little dust particles from the shelves, tables and chairs of the library. She was feeling excited. Thinking about the book made her speed up and eventually finished her chores in less than 10 minutes._

_"Rina! Are you done yet?!" James voice echoed throughout the house and Rina merely flinched a bit. _

_"Yes!" _

_"Wait in your room, I've got some work to do downstairs. Don't you sneak out or else." _

_"Got it, James," Rina mumbled then hurriedly stumbled outside. _

_She pushed the bookshelf in front of the library door and went up the stairs. She gripped the railing tightly then jog towards her room. _

_In a minute, Rina was already taking out the book she took from the library and sitting down on her bed. Her eyes focused on the words in the pages and the sketched pictures of different dragons. Rina's favorite dragon was two stories tall with sparkling, jade green scales and silver outlines. It's wings looked like jagged flower petals and it's eyes were a deep shade of gray. Unlike most of the dragons, it looked both fierce and caring at the same time. Reading the caption underneath the pictures, Rina found out that every dragon has their own particular element and her favorite one was the 'Dragon of Nature'. She smiled as she continued reading, this book was really getting to her. _

_Stopping at a page, Rina sat straight up and examined the ancient letters on the paper. She had stopped in the dragon art spells section and was trying to read out the words. _

_Then, realizing she has a book that could translate it, Rina grab a blue-covered one from her desk and started translating the ancient words. Some of them made no sense, the others were normal, everyday-used ones. Overall, the result was a satisfaction to Rina. The writing sounds more like a chant or poem rather than a powerful spell._

_She read it our loud,"By the time nature foretold, a blizzard of wind, a crystal rain and a water flood would engulf the darkness that lay upon it. For light couldn't be seen without the dark, and the dark couldn't be seen without the absolute light. Hailing the ultimate gates, open the magic of the moon-" _

_For a second, a blinding light appeared in front of Rina and it swirled around the room like wildfire. A moment later, it burst into a silver flurry of petals and a green mist welled up a few feet away from the surprised 10 year old girl. _

_Slowly, it took form of a dragon, like the one that Rina saw in the book. With the same jade scales and silver outlines. _

_"What's your name little one?" The dragon boomed with a soft but stern voice._

_"Rina," the said girl stood up on the bed,"Rina Farris." _

_"I'm Lily, but you can call me Jade too if you like," the dragon replied. "Either way, you can call me whatever you want, little Master Rina." _

_~3 years after that~_

_The living room burst into fire, James laying on the ground, holding his injured arm. He looked mad and a bit scared too. "Stop this at once, Rina!" _

_"Tell me first! Why did you kidnapped me? Am I so important to your 'plans'?" Rina asked. She was kneeling on the wooden floor, seemingly not affected by the red flames that surrounded her. The furniture were sprawled across the carpet, some of them were ripped and have claw marks on them. "You need to tell me!" _

_"It's a secret!" James shouted. Rina stood up and ran outside. _

_"Whatever it is, I'm leaving! I don't want to be a subject of your experiments." _

_She exited through the door before a huge mass of fiery rubble blocked it from the outside. _

_'What did I do?' Rina thought as she collapsed yards away from the house that she was trapped in for 7 years. 15 minutes ago she was in the kitchen when James comes in. She remembered yelling at him and being abused when she tried hitting him. Then Lily, the dragon, appeared in her spirit form and pushed James away. Rina took her chance to escape to the living room, but James followed her. She lash at him with a piece of broken glass that she earned by smashing the flower vase and injured his arm. _

_After that, she cast a spell she learned from the dragon book that summoned the flame dragon, Fieries. (Pronounced like 'fiery' but with an 'es')_

_Her rage took over her and the house caught on fire. She didn't mean to do it, it just happened all of a sudden. Rina shook her head and tried standing up again. That's when she heard the howls of panicked people as they tried to pour water over the fire. Concentrating, Rina managed to make the fire go out with Fieries' help. _

_For a while, she just froze on her spot, gazing at the houses that burnt along with the fire. _

_Taking a step forward, Rina kicked a small stone from the way and ran around the houses. She stopped next to James' home and wiped her eyes. Now she had nowhere to rest. She knew her best option was to find Emily. _

_Hearing footsteps, Rina took off towards the direction of the forest. _

_~~End of Flashback~~_

"And here I am now," Rina took a deep breath as she finished her story. Me and Emily just sat there, looking at Rina with pained expressions.

"We'll take care of you, Rin. Don't you worry," Emily said and hug her once more. "We're family, aren't we?"

"Don't forget about me," I joked and move over to hug Rina too. I feel like I could connect with her, like my bond with both Wendy and Levy. I wonder what's going on in Fairy Tail... I'm sure they're all happy and were probably partying all day in the guild...

Rina smiled and hugged us back. "Thank you..."

Right now, we're family, and nothing can change that...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Author's Corner~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CrystalDT: Right, I know this chapter is longer than the others, but I feel like it should be longer. And another thing, here are the stats of both Emily and Rina:

Emily Farris

Name: Emily Farris

Alias: Em or Emi

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Birthday: January 7th, X774

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Emerald Green

Birth Place: Hargeon

Occupation: Mage/Magic-User

Relatives: Father (deceased)

Mother (deceased)

Rina Farris (younger sister)

Magic: Re-quip Magic (weapons only)

Nature Magic

Rina Farris

Name: Rina Farris

Alias: Rin

Age: 13

Gender: Female

Birthday: April 3, X778

Hair Color: Auburn Brown

Eye Color: Emerald Green

Birth Place: Hargeon

Occupation: Mage/Magic-User

Relatives: Parents (both deceased)

Emily Farris (older sister)

Magic: Dragon Arts Magic (can summon dragons and use dragon-related spells)

CrystalDT: The stats may change later on, so I'll make sure to update again later.

Lucy: CrystalDT Angel doesn't own Fairy Tail.

Natsu: Hey, when am I suppose to appear?!

CrystalDT: Later! Bye everyone.

Erza: Please rate.

Gray: And review.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11- Progress of the Search and Doubts

Natsu's P.O.V:

"She's not in Clover Town either," Gray said. I grumbled as the train bumped into another rock between the railings.

"No matter how many times we search, all of the clues comes to a dead end," Erza sighed.

It's been one and a half months since Lucy left and during that time, the guild have been looking for her. Gajeel, Wendy, Laxus and I tried sniffing the air to see if we can locate her scent, but we found nothing. Cana used her cards to pinpoint where Lucy went, Levy and the exceeds traveled to different towns to ask if they had seen her and the rest of the members spread out to the neighboring towns.

Master didn't help us look for her though, he's still trying to keep his promise to Lucy. Sometimes that old grandpa can be pretty stubborn. The moment he said that in front of Fairy Tail, I almost threw a tantrum and set fire to the guild building.

The next day was equally bad, a storm made the trains in the station in Magnolia stop working and the guild couldn't go anywhere for several days. I tried tracking Lucy through her scent but I can't smell anything. It's all because of that storm! So I nearly 'pushed' Gray into the river, because of my annoyance, and he nearly 'pushed' me. In the process, we knocked Erza into the water and things started to get ugly. She scolded the both of us and we got kicked to a tree. Gajeel, who was passing through the area at that time, laughed at us and accidentally offended Erza, so he got punched in the face. The rest was even worse. So worse that I literally shuddered thinking about it.

"Why do you think that is?" Gray asked. He still hasn't stripped yet and it's been a whole day!

"Maybe Lucy doesn't want us to find her. She left because of us anyways," Erza replied.

"She wouldn't just leave!" I shouted before falling to the floor. My stomach felt sick and I was ready to throw up right then and there.

"Natsu, your motion sickness is getting worse, you know," Gray stated. He crossed his arms and him and Erza shared a look. They were having one of those quiet arguments with their eyes. After what seems like a decade, Erza turned around to face me, worry clear on her face.

"How do you feel when we're on the train heading for Hargeon?"

"Sicker than I've ever been," I managed to choke out before covering my mouth with my hands. We better return to Magnolia quickly, or not I swear I'm going to die because of my motion sickness.

The first town that me and Team Natsu searched was in Hargeon, a day after Loke confronted me. We asked shopkeepers, hotel managers, even illegal forgers and dark mages. At the end, when the mages said that they don't know anything, I literally burn them into crisps and handed them to the Magic Council.

"Well, with Lucy gone, we're going to have to deal with Natsu until we find her," Gray scoffed and I wanted to growl at him, but restrained myself when I felt vomit threatening to come out of my mouth.

"Natsu, come sit," Erza beckoned with her armor-clad hand and I crawled onto the seat next to her.

Like a streak of lightning, Erza had pulled me in closer and I could just feel her hitting my stomach hard before I passed out completely.

Gray's P.O.V:

I watched as the idiot fire-breath got punched by Erza. I definitely never want to be a dragon slayer and be in the same team as her if she's just going to knock me out when I get motion sickness.

"Well, which location are we going to next?" I said just as Erza dropped Natsu's body back on the train seat.

"Oak Town and the northern hills, but we're running out of supplies. So we're going to pack up more things and pick a mission when we get back."

"Oak Town... Hey, isn't that the old Phantom Lord guild location?"

"Yes, why do you ask?" Erza looked at me with a raised eyebrow and I knew I was mentally blushing, not because of Erza but I'm asking about the guild Juvia was in before she joined Fairy Tail.

"Just curious."

Looking out the window, I imagine what the other guild members might be doing right now. Yesterday, Mira sent a message to Erza, telling her that Team Shadowgear went to Camelia Island for a mission and hopefully would find Lucy there. Levy was reluctant to search for her, since she respects Lucy's decision to leave no matter how hurt she is because of Lucy's sudden departure, but was convinced by the other guild members. Honestly, I felt bad for her, she's the one-excluding Natsu- that is the closest to Lucy.

And for the first time in my life, I felt exceptionally, irrevocably sorry for that dense flame brain.

He had the tendency to faint after train rides, not because of Erza knocking him out, and things got worse every time we failed to find Lucy. Once, he almost jumped off a cliff out of confusion and drowsiness when we visited an island south of Fiore. Me and Erza managed to drag him back to the hotel and made it in time for dinner.

What's surprising is that Natsu doesn't eat as much, back then, he just ate a single plate of fire chicken and went back to our hotel room while drinking a bottle of whiskey. Erza was worried about him and tried to catch up to him, only to find Natsu on the bed, sleeping and snoring loudly. I remembered that memory and normally I would tease him, but the day after that, he's just as quiet and we only fought twice in that one week journey. Lisanna told me that Natsu is actually in love with Lucy, though he won't admit it. He's got to be denser than I thought to realize his true feelings for her AFTER she left.

"When will you tell Juvia?" Erza's voice made me snap out of my thoughts and I stared at her like she was crazy. She didn't seem to notice my look, or at least tried to ignore it, and tapped her right foot. "You like her don't you? You feel strange if she's not stalking you or calling you 'Gray-sama'."

"I don't like her! And I'm just used to her habits of following me," I grumbled.

"Don't be as dense as Natsu, Gray," Erza frowned, then she smiled. "Oh, never mind. You'll figure it out sooner or later. But think about it. If you don't 'claim' her, someone else will. Someone like... Lyon. He's head over heels for Juvia. Would you let him have her? I don't think you will."

The mention of Lyon's name made my eyebrow twitch in annoyance and I cross my arms.

"He doesn't deserve Juvia. She could do so much better than him."

"Like who for example?" Erza seems like she's mentally smirking in amusement, but she kept a straight face. "She told me she had a boyfriend, but he dumped her because everywhere she goes, rain would follow."

"Well I'm not like that. Besides, she's changed now. I would become a much better boyfriend-" I stopped as I realized what I had just said.

"See,"Erza smiled wider and turned her head to stare out the window.

"You're thinking of Jellal aren't you?" I commented and her face fell. Her cheeks were dusted with a slight, pale pink color.

"I've been counting the days... The days leading to him being freed. It's not even his own fault, he's been manipulated!"

"Guess those Magic Council officials just want to get revenge on him for tricking the council into believing he's one of the Ten Wizard Saints and firing that attack on the Tower of Heaven, only to realize that the tower was able to absorb it," I said.

"Maybe, but it isn't fair," Erza ran a hand across her hair and sighed once more.

"Life isn't fair either," I whispered under my breath and we continue to sit in silence as the train passed the forests of Clover Town. Around fifteen minutes later, we stopped and Natsu woke up. He was as sick as ever, but at least his face wasn't so ill-looking. He scrambled out of the compartment while me and Erza followed.

"Finally," Natsu shouted and jumped out of the train. He landed on the ground and inhaled the air.

I sweat dropped and scratch the back of my head. "Idiot..."

"What?" Natsu growled and looked at me.

"I said idiot," I repeated the word.

"Say that again, stripper!"

"My pleasure, Idiot!" Our heads clash together and we had an intense staring contest.

"Do I see you two fighting?" Erza asked. She dragged the cart with her massive amount of luggage and glared at us.

"No! We're best buds!" Me and Natsu both hugged each other and immediately push each other away when Erza started walking away from the train station. She stomped her feet on the pavement and called out to us. "Come on! We don't want to be late."

Natsu quickly ran and I did too, not wanting to trigger Erza's bad side.

_~In Camelia Island~_

Levy's P.O.V:

I rubbed my hands together as Jet, Droy and I walk down the path of the snow-covered path. Turns out, a blizzard had hit the towns and islands within a ten-kilometer radius west of Fiore yesterday night. It's not like it's a complete surprise, I stayed up late, decoding runes and examining the map of the continent.

After three hours, I calculated safe pathways and routes going from the town to the mountains where Team Shadowgear needs to defeat a Vulcan for our mission.

Next, we need to fight off the monsters that's been terrorizing the area and destroying herbs that the town needs for their medicines. In a way, it sounds simple, but the monsters were fierce. Thanks to my increased magical power, I can fight more longer and have a much more bigger magic capacity, so I hope the team would be able to finish the mission in a day or two.

Jet and Droy walked in front of me, looking at the hedges and the trees leading up the path. They were shivering from the cold, wearing two sweaters and large, oversized blazers topped with fur-lined knitted scarves. I was cold too, but not as much as them. In the morning, I had put on a thin orange shirt, a long-sleeve navy sweater, long white jean trousers, comfortable brown snow boots and a collared yellow coat. The temperature has dropped from 15 degrees to -5 degrees in the last six hours. I mentally thanked Lucy for the boots that she gave me for Christmas, it's actually really warm and I'm able to run with it in the snow.

Taking out the communication lacrima from my coat pocket, a hologram of Cana and Laki appeared. They were standing in the Ferisha Ruins, southeast of Hargeon town. Cana had predicted that Lucy might have been there, but so far, they got nothing.

"How's your search going?" I started.

"We haven't got any clues," Laki shook her head.

"We'll soon find some," Cana smirked and held up her magic cards. "Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you, I've detected a signal in Hosenka. In the forest, but it's not clear. Could be a ruse, but who knows? I already sent a message to Laxus. They're near the town so they could get there faster."

"Hosenka? But we've searched there already," I concluded.

"We didn't search thoroughly enough," Cana replied. "When are you going to finish your mission?"

"No idea. Let's just hope the monsters aren't that strong," I stated.

"Yeah, hopefully we would find Lucy too," Laki commented and I nodded reluctantly.

"What's wrong?" Cana asked, noticing the look I had on my face.

"I'm not quite sure... I don't want Lucy to be forced to rejoin the guild if we ever find her," I explained. "It's her decision. Her choice. And we're meddling with it."

"We never know if we don't find her," Cana added. "See you, Levy. We'll be back in a couple of days."

"Right, bye," the hologram disappeared and I put it back in my pocket. I sighed inwardly and speed up my walking.

That reluctance I felt before still lingered in my heart...

_~At the Guild~_

Mirajane's P.O.V:

Silence. No sound, not a single footstep. The guild was empty, there's only me, Lisanna and Master, all lingering around the bar. Lisanna glance at the mission board, there's only four missions left, most of the members decided to go on one, as an excuse for trying to find Lucy.

The guild doors opened and Juvia and Gajeel walked in. Both of them have a distorted look on their faces, though their eyes were nothing but emotionless.

"Welcome back," I smiled, trying to light up the atmosphere. It was unusually dreary.

"So?" Lisanna asked, she placed the old washing rag on the counter and her eyes scanned the two.

"Nothing," Gajeel exclaimed and collapse onto a seat at the bar. He grumbled under his breath as Juvia sat down next to him. She place a hand on her forehead and sighed. I frowned at the state she was in and Gajeel glanced at her while taking out a bag of iron metals from the backpack he was carrying. She's not herself for the past month; she stopped speaking in third-person, stopped stalking Gray, stopped laughing, only giving off sad smiles every once in a while.

"Where's Lily?" Lisanna broke the silence that overcame us again.

"He went back to our place," Gajeel said. He chomp on the rectangular steel while Juvia played with her fingers.

"Would Lucy appreciate it?"

"Appreciate what, Juvia-chan?" I shot a look at her.

"Us trying to find her. A part of me says that she doesn't want us to search for her. She said so to Master," Juvia explained.

"Yes," Master stated and we all looked at him. "That's why I'm finally taking actions. I've decided that it'll be better for us to stop the search."

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Author's Corner~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

CrystalDT: Hello again. Now after this chapter, we're going to have a time skip. I feel that it's already long enough, and I wanted to get started for the next phase of the story. So I'll try to update as soon as I can.

Lucy: P.S: CrystalDT Angel invites you to enjoy the fanfiction world and read stories suitable for your age. Now, CrystalDT does not own Fairy Tail.

Natsu: Finally! I'm reappearing!

Gray: The way you say that sounds like you're actually invincible and now you're not.

Natsu: Shut it, Gray.

CrystalDT: Anyways, rate...

Lucy: Review!

Emily and Rina: And read!

Gray: Since when did you get here?!

All Fairy Tail Members: Bye, readers!


	13. Chapter 12

Author's Note: So this chapter would be kind of like a diary. It shows the adventures of Lucy during the whole year. Enjoy :)

* * *

Chapter 12- Another Year Gone

~Year X792~

_~January 7~_

Lucy's P.O.V:

"Happy 18th Birthday!" Me and Rina shouted as Emily sat on the living room couch, facing us.

"Thanks," she smiled warmly. "But you don't have to do this."

"Yes we do," I crossed my arms while Rina nodded her head.

The mansion's living room was all decorated. Rina picked out all kinds of flowers from the valley to put into the flower vase on the table, you could practically smell the scent of the flowers from a mile away. Red ribbons hang from the ceiling and soft music could be heard from the radio, which was placed a few feet away from the left armchair.

A triple chocolate cake sat on the coffee table with white icing on the top that reads 'Happy Birthday Emily', written in cursive. Red and blue cream lined the bottom and top edges of the cake. Next to the writing were freshly-picked red strawberries.

"Now for the presents," Rina beamed and picked up a thin rectangular box that's neatly wrapped in silver paper and a golden bow. She handed it to Emily, "This one is from Lucy-san and me."

Emily began unwrapping it and carefully untie the ribbon. She opened the lid of the box and stared at the present. "This?"

"Yeah," I replied. "We need to spend 75, 000 jewels on that one."

Folded and placed in the box was a long, one-shoulder, red satin dress, the skirt shining and glittering as Emily took it out. "You've got to be kidding me."

"It's the truth, Emily-nee," Rina smiled her sweet little smile. "Now, come on. Try it!"

"Is that why you're wearing those dresses? To have like a waltz dancing party?" Emily looked at our clothes, raising her eyebrows. She looked a bit bewildered but amused at the same time.

"Kind of," I stated.

Me and Rina were all putting on our favorite dresses for Emily's birthday.

I was wearing my dark red dress (like the one she wore at the first episode of Fairy Tail), a red headband, the bracelet that Emily gave me, and a pair of matching high heels.

Rina's dress was a short-sleeve, off-the-shoulders one. It's a midnight blue color and the skirt reaches until her knees. She also wore some blue flats and her hair was tied into a high ponytail with a mint green ribbon.

"Let's not waste time," I said to Emily as I pushed her to her room.

Five to ten minutes later, she came out and mine and Rina's eyes gleamed with happiness at the sight of Emily. The dress fitted her perfectly!

"Now, let's open my present first," I said.

"You have more than one present? How many jewels did you spent?" Emily asked.

"Um... Well, the total is... Twice as many jewels of the cost of the dress?" Rina smiled.

"Oh god," Emily sighed and shook her head. "What about for the cake?"

"... 50, 000 jewels," I replied, rubbing the back of my head. "Just open the rest of the presents will you?"

Emily sighed yet again, except this time it's louder. She walked over to mine and Rina's presents and opened each of them. I smiled once she took out the bracelet I got for her and the earrings from Rina. We coordinated and decided to buy matching accessories for the dress.

For the rest of the day, we sang, dance, ate the cake and the rest of the food and watch our favorite movies.

* * *

_~March 10~_

The sun was high in the sky. The air was damp from the rain last night, but it still felt warm and a bit breezy. White clouds floated slowly in the light blue sky, overall, the atmosphere was peaceful and sincere.

"Requip: Spear!" Emily shouted and lunge at me with a long spear in her hands. The edge was sharp and pointed. Surrounding the blade in the middle were many other sharp blades made of metal. (Think of Erza Knightwalker's default spear)

After Emily's birthday, we all began training twice as hard as before, including running twice as many laps in the morning and fighting twice as many dummies for training. We even practiced longer and would fight hand-to-hand combatant three times a day. It was completely tiring, but our magic capacity had increased and we have excellent staminas.

I jumped and sent a flying kick to Emily, she sidestepped and vines shot up from the ground. One of the vines wrapped around my leg and I quickly took out Cancer's gate key from my belt along with my whip, Fleuve d'etoiles. "Gate of the Giant Crab, I open thee, Cancer!"

Cancer appeared and immediately used his scissors to cut up the vines before he vanished in a puff of smoke. "Ebi!"

Landing on the ground, I spun around and got ready to attack with my whip. "Celestial Slash!"

The attack made Emily stumbled backwards, but she regained her balance a moment later. A magic circle appeared underneath her and 50 matching short swords flashed around her. All of them headed towards me and I tried dodging most of them, deflecting the rest with my whip. I was relieved to see that I hadn't got scratched by any of the blades and proceeded to unleash an attack. Before I got the chance to, Emily ran towards me and I blocked her punch with my arm.

"Arc of Thorns!"

Several vines snaked up around me and Emily, they instantly grew into a forest of thorns and I jumped away as one of them nearly clashed with me. I ducked Emily's kick and I backed away, using my whip to cut the thorns.

"20 Holy Stars: Antares Chariot!" I shouted loud enough for a person to hear from a kilometer away.

Beams and pillars of golden light surrounded the area, they shot up towards the direction of the sky and an explosion occurred. Colorful supergiant stars (Antares stars) and meteors fell to the ground, each of them exploding into a bright light when they hit the earth. A circlet of light appeared, circling the battle grounds, and it disappeared in a shower of yellow and bluish-purple dust at the same time the last of the stars and meteors came in contact with the land. Dust was everywhere, mixing with the peculiar light that's resulted by the attack.

I panted since I used my strongest spell and Emily did too.

She was bruised and sweating like I am, she probably got hit by the explosions or the stars.

"You've gotten better," Emily commented and she smiled at me.

"Thanks," I said, returning the smile.

"Good job both of you!" Rina exclaimed from her spot near the entrance of the mansion. We had agreed that we would take turns fighting each other and with Emily so it'll be fair.

"Alright, let's take a break," Emily stated, wiping the beads of sweat off her forehead.

* * *

_~June 17~_

"The water's so warm," Rina commented, dipping her feet into the hot spring.

"It's suppose to be like that. If the water isn't hot, the spa company's going to have a handful of complaints from their customers," Emily replied, jumping into the water instantly.

"But it's more like boiling hot rather than lukewarm," I stated, massaging my fingers with my other hand. I was afraid that it would start blistering the moment I put them in the water for too long, but Emily doesn't seem to mind at all. She swam a few yards away from her original position at the edge and started washing her hair.

"I like going here from time to time, makes me relaxed."

"I'll pass," I said after reluctantly putting my feet into the spring.

"Do you want any food or drinks?" Rina asked and I turned around to see her holding a cup of blueberry ice shave in her hands.

"Where did you get that?" I added while sweat dropping.

"From the dessert stand over there," Rina pointed to her right and I turned my head to see a long wooden table topped with several bowls of fruit punch, ice cream, syrup and shaved ice.

"Oh."

"Come on, let's just grab something," Emily said, climbing out of the spa. (P.S: Lucy, Emily and Rina are all wearing swimsuits)

We all went towards the stand and I decided to just eat some shave ice with strawberry syrup. I held the paper cup in my hands and looked around the spa. The three of us were the only people here, it was peaceful and silent, which makes it enjoyable. I prefer to be alone while bathing in hot springs, but that seems highly unlikely.

"I just remembered something," Rina broke the silence before turning to look at Emily. Her eyes were gleaming from excitement and curiosity, making me smile at her enthusiasm. "Have you decided what to do with your guild yet, Emily-nee?"

"I have some ideas," Emily replied, shoving a spoonful of green tea syrup-covered ice into her mouth.

"What about the name?" I asked. That question has been bugging me since the first time Emily mentioned about creating her own guild, but I was too busy training to bother about it. "And the members. The rest of the members anyways. I'm already technically in your guild aren't I?"

"Of course," Emily stated. "I'm still thinking about the name. The members... I'm sure we'll meet them soon enough. Don't you think? Let's just hope those future members won't be so... Backstabbing and dumb."

"We're all worried about that, Emily-nee," Rina sighed and threw her empty ice shave cup into the provided trash bin next to the desserts stand.

"We sure do," Emily suck in a breath and continued eating the ice.

"I'm sure when the guild is established, there would be tons of members," I smiled, thinking about what would our future hold for us.

* * *

_~August 2~_

My feet nearly slipped on the wet muddy ground as I followed after Emily, who was already three feet away from my reach. A snap of a branch made me look around, only to see Rina stepping on a small wooden stick.

"Sorry about that."

"That's fine, Rin-chan," I replied, using my new nickname for the now 14 year old girl.

Earlier in the morning, Emily decided to go to town to buy groceries and stumbled upon a group of Magic Council officials. They were sending out requests and missions for independent mages and seeing we that we needed more money: Emily decided that Rina, me and herself would go on one. It's just a simple job with a large award of 700, 000 jewels to capture a small guild of illegal dark mages. Since the mission was in Mt. Wendel, we planned to stay in an inn not far from Shirotsume Town. (I just made up the mountain name and the location. It's just outside of Shirotsume and close to a tiny village)

"We're close, we should arrive in ten minutes or less," Emily informed us.

Like she said, we finally got to the inn we're suppose to stay in the village. From what I've heard, there's only 25 houses and a single hotel for traveling mages. All of the buildings resemble the homes of the people in the Japanese feudal era, with the stone covered roofs and the wooden walls.

The inn was fairly different though. The walls seems to be much more thicker and painted in a bright eye-catching color.

"Welcome to Wendel's Golden Inn!" A shrill feminine voice exclaimed and I glance at the middle-aged woman who ran towards us. The lady has light chestnut hair with a few streaks of gray, all tied up into a messy bun at the back of her head. She was dressed in a long-sleeve, plain red kimono with a black obi and a large yellow ribbon tied around it.

"We'll like to rent a large room with three beds please," Emily said to the woman, taking out her navy coin purse.

"That'll be 100, 000 jewels."

"When would dinner be served?" Rina added as Emily handed the woman the money for the room. She counted it with her fingers before looking at Rina with a warm smile on her face. "At 6 o'clock dear. Breakfast would be at 7 a.m until 9 a.m. We have our delicious beef stew and roasted fish. But you could always ask for something light like bread or porridge from the cook."

"That sounds nice," I commented. I haven't eaten anything since 11 a.m and it's probably 4:30 p.m right now.

"Here are your room keys," the lady handed Emily a single brass key with a picture of a mountain carved on the front, presumably Mt. Wendel.

"Excuse me, excuse me!"

We all turned around and saw a girl around me and Emily's age running straight towards us. She was looking behind her and by the time she glance at our direction, she had bumped into the three of us.

I landed on the ground with a thud, my back sore and in pain, but it's nothing I couldn't handle. Emily lay next to me in the same position, huffing when Rina's head crash onto her stomach. The girl that collided with us was sitting in front of the middle-aged woman, on her knees and staring at each one of us apologetically.

"I'm sorry," her voice sounded soft and innocent like Aries, but it's got an edge to it too.

"Maria! What are you doing here?! You're suppose to be at the harbor. You also bumped into my guests!" The lady shouted and the girl flinched a bit.

"Sorry Ms. Kuriko."

"Get back to the port you brat!"

"Hey," I called out while getting up from my position. I brush the invincible dust from my short denim jeans and cross my arms. "Don't call her a brat. She didn't do anything wrong. Sure she bumped into us, but we're fine aren't we?"

"But-" the woman, Ms. Kuriko, protested but Emily cut her off.

"We are fine. Nothing to worry about."

"Are you okay?" Rina asked the girl, who's name seems to be Maria, and held out a hand to help her get off the ground. Hesitantly, she took it and stood up.

Maria has light blonde hair that reaches until her mid-back and a pale skin complexion. Two shoulder-length bangs frame her oval face, bringing out her bright sea blue eyes, and her plump pale lips. I noticed she was wearing a strapless white tube top, a white miniskirt and sky blue short heeled shoes. Something glimmered just below her ear and I saw a pair of diamond-shaped silver earrings, with three tiny green jewels on the bottom, dangling from it.

"Thank you and I apologize."

"You don't need to," Emily replied. "But you could tell us your name."

"It's..." Maria was silent for a second, as if calculating the pros and cons of telling us her name, before finally answering. "Maria Asheline Seika."

"Are you a Mage?" Rina added, looking a bit excited.

"Yes," Maria nodded.

My mind wandered off to the all-female guild Emily wanted to create and a sudden thought came in my mind. "I've got it!"

And that was how we met our first other guild member and the birth of our guild name.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Author's Corner xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

CrystalDT: So how was it? Sorry if there's any spelling mistakes or you don't like it as much.

Rina: I can't wait for the next chapter.

Elfman: There's a new OC! That's manly!

Lucy: It's not.

Emily: Honestly, we don't even know we'll meet Maria until now. We always thought our guild members name would be something like 'Jessica' or 'Crescent'.

CrystalDT: Anyways, I've been thinking of guild names and I created a poll for it on my profile page. So be sure to vote, the deadline is in a week. So after that, no more voting. Please check out the poll.

Lucy: Don't forget that readers!

Mirajane: I wonder if there's going to be Crime Sorciere in the fanfic. Then there would surely be Jerza! *starts fantasizing and planning how to matchmake possible couples from the guild*

Erza: *blushes a bit* Jellal...

Happy: Erza liiiiikes him!

Erza: *kicks Happy while donning her Flight Armor*

Happy: Naaaatsssuuuu!

Gray: *comes out of the toilet* Is it me or Erza had said Jellal.

Erza: What?! How could you hear that- *inhales* Wait, I-I didn't say his name! I said... Jelly! Yeah. I didn't say Jellal, I said jelly. Anybody wants jelly here? No, okay. Goodbye! *runs away still in her armor*

CrystalDT: *sweatdrop* Okay then. Please read.

Natsu: Rate

Gray: And review.

Lucy: Bye readers!


	14. Important Notice

**Important** **Notice!**

CrystalDT: Hello, sorry this is not an update but I'm just telling you guys that there's a poll to determine what guild name should be used for Emily's guild. I noticed that only one person had voted and there's a limit of minimum 10 votes if I'm going to continue my story. The deadline would be changed from one week to two weeks, since I've got exams coming. If you can't visit my poll, you can just vote in the reviews. So these are the ideas of the names of Emily's guild:

1. Twilight Eclipsier

2. Angelus Dawns

3. Twilight Phoenix

4. Phoenix Dawns

5. Angels Gate

Sorry again! For a change, I'll give you all a sneak peek of the upcoming chapters and characters.

* * *

Character(s):

Name: Maria Asheline Seika

Alias: Mia

Age: 18 (in X792)

20-21 (in X794)

Birthday: December 8

Gender: Female

Race: Human

Hair Color: Light Blonde

Eye Color: Sea Blue (Aqua Blue)

Affiliation: Emily's Guild (guild name would be decided later on)

Occupation: Mage

Birth Place: Wintersegia (random name)

Relatives: Parents (deceased)

Magic: Crystal Dragon Slayer Magic

Background/History:

Maria was born in a place that's always constantly covered in ice and snow called Wintersegia. Her parents died when the town was ambushed by the dark guild, Tartarus, but not before managing to hide a 1 year old Maria in the winter woods, away from the dark mages.

While there, she was found by a dragon called Miyuki, who taught her to read and gave her a book of spells regarding Crystal Dragon Slayer Magic before she disappeared in the year X777. Maria trained herself with the spells from the book while residing in the cave where she and Miyuki stayed in. She would practice simple magic spells at first but as she grew older, she learned more dangerous and powerful ones, thus making her a strong opponent.

At X784, Maria decided to go and travel around the country, seeing she hasn't interacted with a human ever since she's an infant and stumbled upon Rosemary Village.

She met Kagura Mikazuchi, who's brother was 'accidentally' killed by Jellal Fernandes, and they quickly became friends despite their age difference. Maria followed Kagura in her journeys and they resided in a town near the all-female guild, Mermaid Heel.

Kagura decided to join the guild but Maria choses to resume her quest in traveling around Fiore. The two parted ways, still remaining as close friends and they liked to contact each other once every other week, though they became slightly distant during the years. Maria soon reached a village near Shirotsume town and bought a house in the port, around the same time she celebrated her 15th birthday.

Many of the villagers disliked Maria because they thought that she's actually working for Zeref and a witch, ever since she almost froze the entire town because one of the people made her angry. This only made her more mad and depressed, but she concealed it with her quieter, outer personality. This continued on for 3 and a half years, until Maria meets Lucy Heartfilia and Emily and Rina Farris when they were planning to stay in the village for their mission.

Magic:

Crystal Dragon Slayer Magic: Maria's a very skilled user of this particular magic, being able to create crystals of any shape and color. She could make it into living animals and with this magic, Maria is immune to cold, freezing temperature. She could control other people's ice or snow if they utilizes those particular kind of magic.

-Crystal Dragon's Roar

-Crystal Dragon's Eternal Wing Attack

-Crystal Dragon's Aqua Wing Attack

-Crystal Dragon's Infinity Arrows

-Crystal Dragon's Eternal Gale

-Crystal Dragon's Wing Slash

-Crystal Dragon's Rosen Storm

-Crystal Dragon's Aqua Storm

-Crystal Dragon's Jade Crystal Mirror

-Crystal Dragon's Jade Crystal Sword

-Crystal Dragon's Aqua Chains

-Crystal Dragon's Scarlet Mirror: Reflection

-Crystal Dragon's Emerald Memorabilia

-Crystal Dragon's Blossoming Magnolias

-Crystal Flash

-Crystal Dragon's Infinite Orb Attack

-Crystal Slash

-Crystal Dragon's Crystalline Moonlight

-Celestial Crystal Chariot

-Crystal Dragon's Reflection

-Crystal Dragon's Crystal Phoenix

-Crystal Dragon's Crystal Clone

-Crystal Dragon's Crystal Meteors

-Dragon Force

(New attacks may be added later on)

* * *

CrystalDT: Now this is a sneak peek of the chapters.

Chapters Sneak Peek:

_The fire dragon slayer threw the rock with all his might towards the direction of the river. It splashed in the water and the 21 year old couldn't help but grit his teeth. Three years, for three years in total he haven't heard of his former blonde-haired comrade. The guild have been different without her. Everyone is. _

_"One day, one day I'll find you and we can go back to Fairy Tail. We'll continue to be in the same team and act like a real family again."_

* * *

_The roaring of the crowd made every guild pumped up to become the top guild in Fiore. Every one of them showed their signature smirks, grins and smiles, all except for the new all-female guild. They showed no emotion, instead just glancing at the battle field and the people gathered in the arena. _

_"Alright, let's start the Games!" A booming voice sounded throughout the entire stadium._

_"Finally," the white-haired girl from the guild sighed in content and stared at the Fairy Tail guild from her spot._

* * *

CrystalDT: Alright, that's about it. Don't forget to vote for the guild name everybody! I also have an announcement to make. I'm going to need new characters for the story later on so I would be accepting suggestions. If you want to try and suggest your own original characters for the story, please answer all of these questions and stats that your characters should have:

**Name:**

**Alias: (nicknames or the names which other people could call your character. You could skip this if you want)**

**Age:**

**Birthday: (you could also skip this if you want)**

**Gender:**

**Hair Color:**

**Eye Color:**

**Affiliation:**

**Occupation: **

**Guild Mark Location: (anywhere that's decent and if your character belongs to a guild)**

**Guild Mark Color: (if your character belongs to a guild)**

**Relatives: (you could also skip this)**

**Magic:**

**Background/History:**

CrystalDT: That's all for this notice. Please read.

Erza: Rate.

Lucy: And review!

Happy: Fiiiiisssshhhh!

Charles: Quiet, Happy.

Wendy: See you soon!


	15. Chapter 13

CrystalDT: Hello, readers. I should tell you that I'm planning on making another guild for the story other than Emily's. For people who wants to suggest new characters or OC's may do it in the 'reviews' of the story or through PM. Thank you and I hope you enjoy the chapter.  


* * *

Chapter 13: Three Long Years

(This is now set in the year X794)

Normal P.O.V:

The rain beat down on the roof of the people's houses. Golden-yellow lightning flashed in the grey skies while the sound of thunder roared throughout the entire town and it's nearby forests.

Many animals looked for shelter away from the storm as the trees swayed back and forth.

Far off in the valley in the forest of Hosenka, a large, fancy-looking mansion stood in the middle of the cluster of radiant, vibrant-colored flowers.

On the second floor of the building, a white-haired girl layer on the comfortable, queen sized bed. She was wrapped in a lavender blanket with her head buried in the white pillows. She stirred at the sound of thunder and opened her bluish-purple eyes. She reluctantly sat up and glance at the clock on the wall opposite her.

"5:30 a.m," she mumbled under her breath and jumped up. "Today is the day."

* * *

Lucy's P.O.V:

I went towards my walk-in closet and picked out one of my favorite outfit. It was a black halter top made of many ruffly layers, a pair of dark shorts with a silver-grayish belt and silver gladiator heels. (Imagine some 2 inch heels with two straps crossing each other at the toes and other straps, starting at the ankles, zigzagging each other until Lucy's knee)

Running to the bathroom, I put the outfit on the rack and brushed my teeth with minty toothpaste before taking a shower. I used some lilac-scented soap and cherry blossom shampoo for my hair. Apparently I like that combination of scents better than lilac and mint. It feels much more natural that way. After drying myself with one of the two clean cotton towels in the room, I quickly slipped on the outfit and attached my keys and whip to my belt.

Staring at the clock, I tried to rethink things over again. It's been three years since I left Fairy Tail and it's a bit surprising that Team Natsu hadn't already located me living in the forest, but then again I'm sure they didn't care I left.

Anyways, there are so many things that had happened in the past three years.

Emily trained me until I perfected my celestial spirit magic and I managed to learn different kinds as well. This includes requip and take-over. It took me months to master requip and another few for take-over magic. I had improved my magic capacity so I wouldn't get tired so easily. I could cast five Urano Metria spells in a row without using as much as a quarter of my energy.

There's also the process of finding guild members for Emily's guild. Our first other member was Maria. Then without us knowing how ourselves, a dozen more girls decided to join the guild and in less than two years, we already have 70 members including Rina, Emily and me.

I looked over my right shoulder and saw the lavender guild mark that I grew to be fond of. It's basically a picture of a pair of angel wings, the tips pointing to the east, and a set of lines crossing each other next to it. The lines make up to be some sort of symbol similar to Fairy Tail's, but without the tail. Crossing through the symbol and the angel wings is a sword with a wing shaped-like handle. I smiled when I remembered how Rina came up with it and how it fits the description and name of the guild. Angel's Gate. Being surrounded by the members made me extremely happy in the inside and I can't help but smile from time to time.

Our guild master is Emily, since she's the one that decided to start the guild and she's like the turning point to us mages who had a hard life. She made this guild to what it is today and we're all grateful for that.

The only problem we ever had was the Magic Council. Because most of our members are abandoned by their families or have a sad past like some people in Fairy Tail, the council have a hard time with convincing us to just send the orphaned members to the orphanage, but we knew that they don't want to go. Emily threatened the Rune Knights that if they don't let us keep the guild members, she's going to destroy the organization. That settled the problem and we never have to deal with either the council or the Rune Knights again.

I also had changed the interior of my room a little bit. The carpet was now pure white and the table in front of the balcony door, which was now much three times as wide as before, was much more lower and resemble more of a coffee table. Behind it was a pale white couch and beside the table were matching armchairs. The arrangement looks like the one in the living room, except without the fire place and mantelpiece.

Along with the new guild and everything, the mansion had also changed. It was three stories high now and almost twice as many bedrooms as before, which was 40.

Every guild member had one room and sometimes they wanted to share them with another member. I, myself was the roommate of Maria when she first came here, but she moved to the bedroom next to mine's when the mansion was expanded.

To simplify it, almost everything had changed since the year X791. Everybody had moved on from their old lives and started a much more amazing new one, especially me.

I slowly walked to my desk and took out the hairbrush from the drawers. Brushing my waist-length hair, I continue to wonder about the memories of when I first met Emily in the forest. Without her, I wouldn't be here right now.

"Lucy!" Emily's voice called out from the hall.

"Coming!" I shouted back and grabbing a silver headband, headed out to meet the now 20 year old girl. I adjusted the headband on top of my head and fixed my usual star-shaped earrings.

Standing at the foot of the stairs was none other than Emily herself. Her black hair was cut short until it barely reaches her mid-back, but it just made her more 'majestic'.

A few feet away from her is Rina. We celebrated her 16th birthday two months ago. Her hair was still as straight as it was before, with shorter bangs that framed her face perfectly and part of her hair was braided. About one and a half years ago, she cut it into a short bob haircut, which grew until her lower back after that.

"Come on, breakfast is ready," Rina beamed.

"You're going to need your strength for today," Emily added.

"I know," I stated, jogging down the stairs and going to the bar in the kitchen. Emily had it made ever since Maria joined and we usually hang out there if we're not busy in our own rooms, the library, living room or on a mission.

"Good morning girls," Chisaki greeted from the bar. She was the head barmaid and usually spend her time taking orders from the guild members or traveling in town. (Credits to author 'kelpiejh' for this OC character. Thank you for sending in your OC)

Chisaki is an 17 year old girl with shoulder-length black hair and emerald green highlights. Her eyes were a deep topaz color and she has a pale skin complexion. The first time we met, she was a cheerful and laid-back 15 year old girl but her eyes were a different story. You could see the trapped little girl, afraid of opening the metal cage that held her captive.

Rina helped her escape from the clutches of that particular fear-a fear of being trapped and shunned from the light- and they became best friends ever since.

Chisaki's magic was very powerful, she could copy other people's magic and that could be very helpful. But she prefers to be known as a traveling ice mage and keep her real power a secret between us and the guild.

"Good morning Chisa-chan," Rina replied and sat down on the seat at the bar.

"Here's your breakfast," Chisaki smiled and pulled out three plates of delicious-looking waffles topped with fresh fruits. Mine in particular was topped with strawberries and bright purple blueberries.

"Thanks," I said and started eating the food. Chisaki's cooking is the best that I've ever tasted and the butter on the waffle practically melted in my mouth.

"Hi," Maria's familiar voice greeted from behind me and I turned around from my seat.

Maria was probably the one that changed the least over the course of two years. Her hair was just an inch longer than before and she kept her old hairstyle. However, her bangs were curled at the ends and barely reached her upper chest. "Are you ready for today?"

Taking a deep breath, I sighed and put down the metal fork on the plate of waffles in front of me. "Yes I am."

"Good, because we're suppose to leave after breakfast," Maria stated.

I sighed once again and cross my arms, closing my eyes in the process. "I hope this doesn't end in a bloodbath."

Rina nodded and stopped eating, changing the topic of our conversation. "Do you think the days are coming by fast? One day we met and started a guild, then the next we're all experienced and improved mages who kept going on missions to fill up their schedules. I kind of miss the old days."

"Everybody does Rina," Emily commented and pat her little sister's shoulder.

"Yes, but we must focus on the present, not the past," Chisaki quoted. She took our empty plates and put our favorite drinks on the bar. I immediately took the glass of strawberry milkshake and sipped on the drink, being more refreshed than ever.

"The storm is kind of like the one you mentioned that sent you to Edolas, Lucy-san," Rina said. "Maybe we're going to Edolas too."

"I wish," I joked and we all half-heartedly laughed. This is now my family, my precious family.

* * *

**xX At Magnolia Xx**

Normal P.O.V:

The fire dragon slayer threw the rock with all his might towards the direction of the river. It splashed in the water and the 21 year old couldn't help but grit his teeth. Three years, for three years in total he haven't heard of his former blonde-haired comrade. The guild have been different without her. Everyone is.

"One day, one day I'll find you and we can go back to Fairy Tail. We'll continue to be in the same team and act like a real family again."

* * *

**Author's Corner**

CrystalDT: Sorry for not updating in a while. I've got exams almost every day of the month now, but I'll try to update when I can.

Natsu: Which is why try not to pressure CrystalDT Angel because of- *mouth muffled by Lucy's hand*

Lucy: What he meant is that... That- that every three chapters starting from this chapter, we're going to have a truth or dare mini game in the Author's corner!

CrystalDT: Since when did we agreed to that?

Mirajane: That sounds exciting. *sweet smile*

Gray: For the love of Mavis, Mirajane'a going to matchmake everyone again!

Mirajane: I'll definitely support NaLu, GaLe, Gruvia and Jerza!

Gray: Why do we need to get stuck with a matchmaking demon?

Mirajane: What was that, Gray? Did you say something? *demon aura revolving around her*

Gray: Nothing!

CrystalDT: *sigh* Alright then. Please read-

Happy: Review!

Charles: And rate. CrystalDT doesn't own Fairy Tail.


	16. Chapter 14

CrystalDT: I forgot to tell you guys that the vote for the guild name is now over. I counted the votes from the poll and some from the story's 'reviews', and it resulted in Angel's Gate. Thank you for voting and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

* * *

Chapter 14: Important Meeting

_**~At the town of Magnolia~**_

Natsu's P.O.V:

I threw another rock at the lake and the splashing sound it made, when the stone and water 'collided' together, made me think more of Lucy.

How was she doing? Is she alright? Is she hurt? If so then I'm going to hunt down those people who hurt her.

My ears picked up a chirping sound and I turn my head to see a small bluejay bird. Mira ever mentioned it while we were having a conversation and described it to me. Apparently, that was Lisanna's favorite bird because she liked the color of the feathers and how the wings seems so smooth and beautiful.

"Oi, Flame Brain!"

"What ice stripper?" I exclaimed, glaring at the ice Mage.

Gray had remained unchanged during the course of three years, all except his slightly longer hair. He showed no single emotion and cross his arms like he doesn't care about anything.

"Master's calling us back to the guild and Erza is waiting for us at the end of the street."

As soon as he said Erza's name, I quickly ran towards the road with a trail of dust behind me. When Gramps called off the search for Lucy, Erza has been twice as strict as before. Gray and I never argue in front of her and there are less guild fights than usual in Fairy Tail. Juvia was also much more strict, since she stopped stalking Gray, and would warn us if we're making 'too much' noise.

Skidding to a halt at the corner of the street, I turned to the left and nearly bumped into a bunch of giggling, obnoxious-looking girls. They shot me this strange look but I ignored it, afraid of being late.

Erza stood just outside the doors of a bakery a few stores down. I sniffed the air and smelled cinnamon, chocolate and strawberries. She must have been eating her precious strawberry cheesecake in that cake shop. Her scarlet hair was blown by the wind to my direction and I detected her scent.

Strawberry, raspberry and this armor metal kind of smell. She spun around and I noticed her hard, pale face.

"You're ten seconds late."

"Sorry!" I shouted while sweat dropping.

"Hey!" Gray's voice echoed throughout the whole block and after a few footsteps later, stopped running and stood next to me. "Don't just leave me there!"

But I just ignored him, not wanting to argue with him today.

The scarlet-haired woman looks basically the same. Though there are some differences like her hairstyle for example.

It was much more longer, reaching until her mid thighs and some strands of it are braided. At missions, Erza would tie her hair up into a ponytail, but she mostly let it down.

Next was her outfit, now she usually wears a sleeveless, collared black top and she dons a new armor made by Heart Kreuz. The shoulder guards were like her old armor (the one that she's wearing at the beginning of Fairy Tail) but the sides of Erza's body are not covered by the grayish metal. Three petal-like shaped armor plates were hanging down from the armor and around her hips, just above the plates, is a dark brown belt.

The front of Erza's armor is mostly plain, save a large picture of the Heart Kreuz company symbol (the pattern is identical to Erza's first armor in the anime, except it's silver not golden and the position of the cross is on the right not on the left) and a pattern of two bird wings next to it. They are a shade of grayish-white but the designs on it are outlined with gold.

Dark burgundy gloves covered most of Erza's arms, ending until her upper arms, the left one concealing the bottom half of her guild mark. Outlining the top edge of the gloves are tiny, thin white laces.

Three-fourth of it are covered by silver armor, including decorative vine-like metal encircling her arm.

"Why did you call us?" I whined, secretly still thinking about Lucy's whereabouts.

"Stop complaining and listen up," Erza shot me and Gray one of her death glares and we both gulped simultaneously. "Master's going to have an important meeting today with another guild master. Team Natsu's going to guard the second floor and make sure no one comes eavesdropping on the conversation between them. Is that clear?"

"Yes!" Me and Gray said, making Erza smile a little bit.

"We're heading to the guild right now and I hope that you two will behave."

"Of course we would Erza!" Gray remarked and I nodded my head.

"Why shouldn't we?"

"Good," Erza put her hands on her hips.

"By the way, which guild master is going to meet up with Gramps?" I asked, curiosity taking over me and I inwardly frown.

"Angel's Gate."

* * *

Lucy's P.O.V:

The familiar sight of Magnolia made my heart nearly jumped out of my chest as the train stopped moving.

Honestly, I'm extremely nervous.

From the first time we teleported to the Hosenka train station, I felt worried. Worried about Fairy Tail, worried about the outcome of the meeting between Emily and Makarov and worried about the guild members.

"How long are we going to be here?" Rina asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I crossed my arms and legs while staring out the window. "About an hour or so."

"I'm not sure why we're doing this meeting, but I know it has to be something important," Jade commented.

Jade had joined Angel's Gate half a year after it was created and proved to be a powerful Mage. She's a skilled user of teleportation and darkness magic, like illusions and shadow control. She and Emily fought each other once and we ended up losing our entire training ground at the end of the battle.

She has straight dark brown hair reaching until her hips and light grey eyes. Her face is framed by two curled bangs that went past her shoulders and she mostly wear gothic clothes.

"It is important," Emily stated as we all stood up and walked out of the train.

~_30 minutes later~_

I sighed.

We had arrived in Fairy Tail and I stared at the giant wooden doors of the guild. I'm hoping that nobody would notice who I really am.

Emily put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a sympathetic look. "You'll be fine."

"Promise?" I whispered, but loud enough for the others to hear.

"Promise," Emily said.

Maria opened the doors and I could feel the stares the guild members are giving us without having to look at them. I took a deep breath and slowly took a step forward, walking next to Jade.

I glance at the direction of the bar and saw Juvia, Gajeel, Levy, Wendy and the exceeds. Juvia was fairly different, she's still as pale as ever, but her hairstyle had changed. It was loose and in soft beach waves that complimented her theme: water or the sea. Levy was next, she seems much more taller than before and her hair's longer. Gajeel didn't change one bit though. Wendy, being around 15 to 16 years old, looks mature and cute at the same time. (She now looks more like her Edolas counterpart)

And they were all looking at us.

"Welcome!" Mirajane's voice rang throughout the guild. We all turned to stare at her. She was behind the bar, wiping mugs and dishes, and I can't help but look at her and Lisanna, who's sitting in front of her. The little ponytail on top of Mirajane's head was gone, instead it was held back by blue hairpins. Lisanna has slightly longer hair and she now have bangs framing her face.

"We're here to see your Master," Emily started.

"You must be from Angel's Gate! Master is currently in his office, feel free to go upstairs," Mirajane replied.

"Thank you."

Suddenly, the guild doors opened with a bang and I cursed under my breath.

"Hey, who are you?!" Natsu. It must be Natsu. I recognized that loud voice of his, beckoning everyone who hears it to want to have a fight with him.

"You dumb flame brain, of course they're from that guild whose guild master is going to have a meeting with Gramps," Gray exclaimed.

"What-" Natsu was cut off by Erza, who gave him a stern glare.

"Quiet you two."

"I'll go first to see Makarov," Emily said and I nodded in return. She went upstairs, her footsteps echoing throughout the guild hall. When she was out of sight, I cross my arms, waiting for this to be over.

"What are you staring at?" Jade said to the guild members and in just a second, all of them returned to what they were doing before we entered the building.

"Do you want anything to drink?" Mirajane asked.

"No thank you," I replied and sat on one of the stools at the bar.

"Salamander, fight me!" Gajeel shouted and after a few minutes of endless bickering, a full-out guild fight has broken out.

Rina sweat dropped as she sat next to me. This is going to be a long day...

**_~Inside Makarov's Office~_**

Normal P.O.V:

"Ivan is on the move," Makarov stated as he stood facing the window.

"I heard that he's gathering new guild members, but they had all declined. There's still a strong possibility that he won't succeed in destroying your guild," Emily replied.

"But there's still a possibility that he could," Makarov turned around and walk towards his desk that is full of complaints from the Magic Council.

"Nobody can't stop Ivan, not today, not tomorrow... Except..." Emily trailed off.

"You don't mean..."

"I think Gajeel has gained Ivan's trust, but let him go undercover for a bit more," Emily added. "It's better to take extra precautions."

"Yes, I have considered that. But do you really think he would participate?"

"Of course he would. Your guild is planning to enter the biggest Magic competition in the history of Fiore. He'll definitely come if your guild is participating," Emily explained, crossing her legs and tapping on Makarov's desk with her fingers. "My own guild is participating in the Games as well, but this is all the help I could muster."

"Either way, we're grateful for your help," Makarov smiled before his face turned serious once more. "Ivan would be in the competition. It's all settled. Fairy Tail will stop Raven Tail in the Grand Magic Games."

* * *

**Author's Corner**

CrystalDT: How was it? I hope it's not too bad. Please read.

Maria: Rate.

Chisaki: And review!


	17. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Preparations

Lucy's P.O.V:

"Where's my boots?" Jade called out.

"Check your walk-in closet!" Chisaki yelled back.

I sweat dropped and started packing up my clothes.

After Emily's meeting with Makarov, we immediately teleported back to our guild and started getting ready to go to Crocus tomorrow afternoon.

I was glad that I didn't need to deal with Team Natsu, it's all thanks to that guild fight that Gajeel had started. Natsu and Gray had another endless battle while Erza has to warn every single member that participated in the fight to stop 'killing' each other. We left before they had a chance to confront us.

*_Flashback*_

_Natsu growled and bang his head at Gray's. "Do you want to fight, ice brain?" _

_"Do whatever you want flame brain, but I don't have time to argue with you and that silly tiny bird brain of yours," Gray growled back and both of them glared at each other. _

_Suddenly, Elfman came flying and clashed into the ice and fire Mage. _

_That's when all hell broke loose._

_*End of Flashback*_

Maria sat on the edge of my bed, casually flipping through the newest Sorcerer's Weekly magazine. She already packed the things that she needed when we first started eating breakfast.

Since it we would only stay at Crocus for a week, I decided to pack three pajamas, two outfits for the Games, and a pair of extra clothes.

Emily made everyone brought their swimsuits too in case we got a chance to take a break from the GMG and I've got to say that I'm hoping we could go to a swimming pool. I heard that Crocus has loads of resorts and places specially for leisure activities. I smiled at my little fantasy and put a simple black bikini top with white pentagram star patterns on the bottom edges into my purple suitcase.

"Fairy Tail's going to be in the Games," Maria stated and I looked at her with a blank face. I knew that they were going to participate. It's quite easy to predict their decision to join the GMG. Emily told me that this time Fairy Tail's going to have one team rather than two like before.

"Don't remind me," I silently groaned and walked to the bathroom to get my shampoo and soap. I went to the rack, that's attached to the wall next to the bathtub/jacuzzi, and grab everything I needed. Including a toothbrush, mint-flavored toothpaste, a white towel, my favorite cherry blossom-scented soap and lilac shampoo.

"You know sooner or later, you're going to have to fight with one of them. That's what you want isn't it?" Maria continued.

"Of course it is," I replied, calmly strolling back to put the toiletries in the suitcase.

"Well, I'm confident that you will beat whoever you have to face. You've been training four times as hard as normal people would. You're strong and everybody here knows it. You're an S-class Mage after all," Maria said, smiling.

It's true. After I mastered my celestial spirit magic, Emily held the first S-class exam of Angel's Gate and I managed to become an S-class Mage. I don't really know how I did it, but I knew that after that, I'm going to have to train much harder.

"Thanks. But how much I improved would be revealed by the end of the competition," I muttered. Maria opened her mouth as if to say something else but Rina's voice made her stop.

"Maria-chan, could you help me please?"

"I'll be right there!" Maria shouted back and stood up from my bed. She handed the Sorcerer's Weekly magazine to me with a serious look. "You are strong. Never doubt that."

And with that, she left the room and headed to wherever Rina is right now.

I collapsed onto my bed, magazine in hand and stared at the ceiling. I imagined Team Natsu's faces: Natsu grinning at me when he invited me to join Fairy Tail, Gray stripping and panicking while trying to find his clothes, Erza eating her strawberry cheesecake and smiling at me and Happy happily eating his favorite fish.

They were all cheerful and happy. Just then a picture of the Fairy Tail members when they were younger entered my head. The corners of mouth twisted into a smile, but it soon turned into a frown.

My ambition to get stronger did come true, but I'll have to fight one of the strongest members of Fairy Tail to prove it. That's my new goal. To defeat Team Natsu or be evenly matched with Laxus or Gildarts. It may seem hard and impossible to do, but I remember what mama said. That nothing is impossible and we've just got to keep chasing after that dream until we succeed.

My bedroom door opened and I slowly sat up to see Celestia. She's around the same age as Rina and her best friend. Her deep, midnight black hair was tied into a ponytail by a white ribbon and her wide matching eyes were staring at me. (credits to Sunsetdh for this idea and character)

"Lucy-san, Emily-san wants to see you in the living room."

"Alright," I said and went towards the door. If Emily's calling me, then it must be something important.

Celestia and I walked down the halls until we reached the stairs. I stared ahead and saw the whole guild members gathered in front of the fireplace. Emily stood at the side of it with Rina next to her.

Once we arrived at the bottom of the stairs, Emily started talking. Her voice was serious like Erza's, but it's twice as stern and there's a hint of anger in her tone.

"As you know, we're leaving for the GMG's tomorrow. Now we would decide which one of you are going to compete in the games. First off, these members aren't allowed to attack other participating teams. You could fight with them if you are chosen to be in one of the battles. Secondly, I expect the members that are chosen to do their best."

Many of the members began chattering but it quickly died down.

"So," Emily continued, more calm and collected than before. "The team consists of five people and two reserved members. The first one is..."

Everybody waited. It was deadly silent, you could practically hear a pin drop to the floor. I cross my arms and close my eyes, taking in the silence of the room. It felt very peaceful but it's nerve-wrecking at the same time.

"Lucy Heartfilia. Alias Yukihime Crystalise Celtia."

I sighed in relief and looked up at Emily, who gave me a warm smile. She turned her head to inspect the crowd, who's endlessly congratulating me. They stopped once Emily cleared her throat and moved to stand just behind the coffee table. "The second member is Rina. Rina Farris. The third is Maria Asheline Seika. Next is Jade Erin. And the last is Sierra Wavern. The two reserve members would be Chisaki Kurokawa and Celestia."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sierra staring at Emily in shock. She joined the guild a year ago and is a skilled user of Water Dragon Slayer Magic. She was a 19 year old girl with light blue hair reaching until her hips and electric blue streaks. Her eyes were the color of a warm chocolate brown, a shade darker than my natural eye color. I glance at her and kept thinking about GMGs. Sierra reminds me of Juvia and I have a feeling she would be in the competition too, most likely as a reserve member.

"That's all for today," Emily said and all of us went back to what we were doing before. Most of the members haven't finished packing and they ran towards their respective rooms.

* * *

_~The Next Day~_

I dragged my suitcase to the living room, brushing a loose strand of my hair out of my face and behind my ear.

Today's the day. The day when we would teleport to Crocus.

Rina, Emily, Maria, Chisaki, Celestia, Jade and Sierra were gathered at the bar. Chisaki wiping the table for the last time before we leave whlie the others were just chatting. Rina took notice of me and jumped down from her seat. She waved and I greeted her with a 'good morning'.

"Ready for today?" Maria asked me. She was dressed in her usual clothes, which is a strapless white top with crystal diamond patterns at the bottom, covered by a long-sleeve, short navy jacket clasped together by a diamond-shaped pin, a pleated white miniskirt with faded black snowflake prints on the side and knee-high black lace-up boots.

I nodded calmly even though I'm stuttering in the inside.

Sure we're going to Crocus, but Fairy Tail would be there. A part of me wanted to stay away from them rather than confront them. I tried ignoring it and stopped walking.

"When do we leave?"

"In a few minutes," Jade replied.

"Cone on then!" Rina exclaimed. All so us looked at her as she dragged each one of us closer. Soon, we're all standing in a circle. Emily stretched out her hand so it's in the middle. We slowly did what she did and after all of us stacked our hands on top of each other, we put our arms in the air.

"Angel's Gate!"

I smiled and I could feel this tingling feeling in my heart.

"Now then, let's go to Crocus!" Maria called out. This is it. It's time.

* * *

**Author's Corner:**

CrystalDT: Sorry about the chapter being shorter than the rest. I'll make it longer in the next chapter. As a sorry present, this is the stats of the known Angel's Gate members:

Lucy Heartfilia/Yukihime

Name: Yukihime Crystalise Celtia

Real Name: Lucy Heartfilia

Alias: Yuki

Age: 20

Hair Color: White (looks a pale, light blonde up close)

Eye Color: Purplish-Blue

Affiliation: Angel's Gate

Occupation: S-class Mage

Guild Mark Location: Right Shoulder

Guild Mark Color: Lavender

Magic: Celestial Spirit Magic

Heavenly Body Magic/Celestial Magic

Requip

Take-Over: Celestial Soul

Transformation

* * *

Emily Farris

Name: Emily Farris

Alias: Em/Ems

Age: 20

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Emerald Green

Affiliation: Angel's Gate

Occupation: Angel's Gate'a Guild Master

Guild Mark Location: Left Upper Back

Guild Mark Color: Navy

Magic: Requip

Nature Magic

Transformation

Weather Magic (she could control the weather)

* * *

Rina Farris

Name: Rina Farris

Alias: Rin

Age: 16

Hair Color: Auburn Brown

Eye Color: Emerald Green

Affiliation: Angel's Gate

Occupation: Mage

Guild Mark Location: Right Upper Back

Guild Mark Color: Dark Green

Magic: Dragon Arts Magic

Take-Over: Dragon Soul

* * *

Maria Seika

Name: Maria Asheline Seika

Alias: Mia

Age: 20-21

Hair Color: Blonde

Eye Color: Sea Blue (Aqua Blue)

Affiliation: Angel's Gate

Occupation: S-Class Mage

Guild Mark Location: Upper Right Thigh

Guild Mark Color: White

Magic: Crystal Dragon Slayer Magic

* * *

Chisaki Kurokawa

Name: Chisaki Kurokawa

Alias: Chisa-chan/Saki-chan

Age: 17

Birthday: April 1st

Hair Color: Black with emerald green highlights

Eye Color: Topaz

Affiliation: Angel's Gate

Occupation: Mage

Guild Mark Location: Middle of her back

Guild Mark Color: Teal

Relatives: Deceased parents and brother. Elderly grandparents and cousins who she doesn't get along with.

Magic: Duplicate magic (She can copy other people's magic to a certain extent. However, all disadvantages and advantages come with the magic. If she is copying dragon slaying magic, she couldn't handle transportation the whole time that she is using it.)

History/Background:

Chisaki was born and raised in a foreign country and lived with her grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and brother. One day, she was out shopping with her grandparents and cousins. During this time, her town was attacked by a dark guild. She returned to see her parents both dead and her brother being taken away. She awakned her magic after seeing her cousin Lito using ice magic in town. In the process of defeating the dark mages, she accidentally killed her brother along with the mages and a few of her friends. To this day, she remains afraid of killing people and has an extreme distrust of men. She also has hemophobia. Chisaki continued using her magic in her town to help, however she could only use the same amount of power as the person she copied from. She quickly ran out of power, but continued to rebuild the town using the ice. At first, everyone thought she was an ice mage like Lito, however, she started to use the same shadow magic that the dark guild used. Since then, her uncle has kept her cooped up in her room so no one can get to her lost magic. She could be used as a weapon against pretty much anything. The previous year, Chisaki escaped from the house in order to gain better control of her magic and has been masquerading as an ice maker wizard since. She copies pretty much every single type of magic she sees, so she has a huge list of possible powers. Her favourite magic at the moment is Time Arc, but rarely gets the chance to use it.

* * *

Celestia

Name: Celestia

Alias: Celeste

Age: 15

Hair color: Midnight Black

Eye color: Midnight Black

Affiliation: Angel's Gate

Occupation: Mage

Magic: Animal Magic (can speak to animals and can summon any animal or animal spirit to her aid/need. Sometimes, with luck, she can use her magic to combine with a spirit and have her own mind but in the spirit animal'a body. She can also predict the future.)

Background/History:

Celestia was dumped in the woods when she was 3 years old along with her 13 year old brother, by her careless parents, and her brother died protecting her from a dark guild. In the forest, a stampede of wild horses, known as Kuaivlons for their speed, took her to the edge of a sea, which was surprisingly right next to the forest. There, after many many years, Celestia learned to communicate with sea animals and land animals. She learned every type of animal's call, and was able to find a ruin with a Kuaivlon's help. In the ruin, she learned spells to summon animal spirits, including dragons, fish, elephants, and thousands of other animals. Once, she found dragon bone remnants and took some of them to her wooden, hand made house. She accidentally dropped one in the fire, and it cracked. In the process of trying to get the bone out, she dropped another completely identical one in the coals. This one had less cracks, and she noticed each crack on each bone was a specific shape. That was when she learned to predict the future.

* * *

Jade Erin

Name: Jade Erin

Alias: Jay

Age: 19

Birthday: October 11th

Hair Color: Dark Brown

Eye Color: Light Grey

Affiliation: Angel's Gate

Occupation: Mage

Guild Mark Location: Left Waist

Guild Mark Color: Dark Grey

Magic: Teleportation Magic

Darkness Magic

* * *

Sierra Wavern

Name: Sierra Wavern

Alias: Sierre

Era-chan

Age: 19

Birthday: February 12th

Hair Color: Light Blue with Electric Blue Streaks

Eye Color: Brown

Affiliation: Angel's Gate

Occupation: Mage

Guild Mark Location: Back of Left Hand

Guild Mark Color: Navy

Magic: Water Dragon Slayer Magic

* * *

CrystalDT: So that's it for the characters. I hope you had a fun time reading this. And don't forget to read-

Levy: Rate-

Gajeel: And review. *munches on a plate of iron*

Mirajane: Gajeel, that's the serving tray! *deadly aura*

Lucy: *sweatdrop* See you in the next chapter!


	18. Chapter 16

CrystalDT: So this GMG is different from the one in the manga and anime. I'm still thinking about the battles for the Games and I hope you find it interesting enough.

* * *

Chapter 16: Crocus

Lucy's P.O.V:

I blinked, trying to adjust my eyes to the scene in front of me. My hand that held Jade's arm released it's grip and hung like a loose strand of rope next to my body.

Everywhere, even the gloomy and dark alleys, were full of life. People were running around and smiling, I couldn't detect a single frown on any of their faces. The streets were three times as busy as Hosenka's, so busy that there is at least ten people in one store.

"Well, here we are," Jade stated, breaking the silence that fell upon all of us.

"It's so lively," Rina commented, walking towards one of the stores. "Where should we go first?"

"The inn of course. We'll drop our belongings there before we go sightseeing," Sierra said and rummage through her navy shoulder bag, taking out a folded piece of paper with many creases on it. She unfolded it twice and stared at the contents. "Amber Crown Inn. It's location is in Copper Alley, Blossom Street, the fifth building to the right."

"I know that place, I stayed there for a month when I'm still a traveling wizard," Chisaki concluded and smiled. "It has great service and the receptionist is really nice."

"I sure hope so. I don't want to deal with annoying people," Jade cross her arms stubbornly and I can't help but think that she reminds me of a younger Mirajane. They were both persistent, wears gothic clothes and can be a bit rude at times.

"Jade," Maria called out, almost accusingly, at the said Mage.

"What?" Jade snarled and the two glared at each other. I sighed, they were like Erza and Mirajane. Except they don't fight, they usually just have a staring contest if the others are occupied.

"Let's get to the inn," Emily interrupted. She wore an amused smile on her face as she led the way with Chisaki by her side.

_~10 minutes later~_

_~Copper Alley, Blossom Street~_

"One extra large room please," Chisaki said to the receptionist. She nodded with a grin and took out a brass key from the counter.

I looked at the scenery of the road as Chisaki and the female receptionist chatted happily among themselves. The road was quieter than the one we arrived in, which means more privacy for me, and there aren't as many shops.

Putting a hand on my left hip, I turned back around to fully examine the inn we're suppose to be staying. The building was three stories high and maybe around 20 feet wide with a large sliding glass door. The walls were painted in a bright white color and just on top of the entrance is a wooden rectangular sign. Written in neat block letters on it is the writing 'Amber Crown Inn'.

Emily had gone to check out the stadium for the GMGs and left her luggage in the sitting room of the inn where we were all waiting. It was a nice comfy place that gives off a homey feeling, making the corners of my mouth to pull up into a slight smile as I remembered our guild.

Rina stood next to me while carrying her green duffel bag. She was inspecting the flowers in the sky blue plastic vase on the table, oddly interested by it.

I glance at the plant and saw that it's Rina's favorite kind of flowers, Wisteria.

She poke the petals with her fingers, gently brushing the thornless stem and I noticed her eyes seemed to sparkle in excitement. I understand why she was interested but I was confused why she was excited.

"Alright, we're in Room 35," Chisaki stated. She walked towards us, holding the key right at the path of the sunlight that streamed through the sitting room's window. "We got the penthouse."

"That's great!" Sierra exclaimed, she had just returned from buying some drinks for us. Her arms was full of beverages and I sweat dropped.

"Let me help you with that."

"Ah, thank you," Sierra replied as I took three of what seems like coffee from a nearby cafe.

About 5 minutes later, we're all settled in our room. Everybody was in a rush to leave our things in the penthouse so we could quickly explore the city before the preliminaries. In fact, I was dragged by the others to the elevator and they dragged me again to our rooms. I feel like a kite that wasn't able to fly because my owners are gripping me tightly. Five times as tightly as Emily's grip actually.

I put my suitcase on my assigned bed, rubbing my sore arm, though it didn't really hurt. I quickly took out my coin purse and hung it on my belt in case we're going shopping, which I bet we will.

"Hey, Lucy-san!" Rina beckoned and I walked towards her.

"Yeah?"

"Let's go! We don't have much time!" Rina yelled and grab my arm, making me flung to the air as she raced outside.

"Where are we going?" I asked, dazed.

"To the store of course!" Rina shouted, her eyes gleamed like before.

Of course this was the reason she was so excited, I should've known.

**First Destination: Magic Store**

I went to the counter where the salesman was quietly arranging different magic cards. He looked up when I stopped walking and he seems to be in a daze when I inspected the displays.

"Have you got any celestial spirit keys?"

"Ah- Yes, yes we do," the salesman said, his cheeks flushing red. He took out a beautifully decorated box with a golden lid. I opened it and my eyes slightly widened. There are around nine keys sitting on the bottom of the box and I picked up one that caught my eye. It's a platinum key, the handle sporting a silver vine-like material circling it, ending at the bottom. On the top is a picture of a pair of two angel-like wings, perfectly smooth and graceful.

"How much?"

"That is a rare key, around 25, 000 jewels. But we have a 20% discount sale today because of the GMGs, so 20, 000 jewels. I could let you have it for 18, 000 though," the salesman scratch the back of his head, leaning on the counter to get a closer view of the key... Or at least that's what I think he's doing.

"Really?" I smiled.

"Yes, do you want me to wrap that for you?"

"No, it's fine," I shook my head, putting the key onto my belt.

"Do you want anything else?" The salesman was now jumping from his original position behind the counter to the spot in front of me.

"Well..." I looked at the clothes section and I stopped at a particular display. "What about that one?"

**Second Destination: Starlight Blossom Family Park**

"This place is so beautiful!" Maria commented. We sat next to each other on the bench, both of us gazing at the pretty cherry blossoms that were falling from the tree a few yards away from us.

Rina and Emily, who had returned from her visit at the same time we arrived at the park, were buying ice cream and Jade was busy shopping at the goth-themed clothing store a block away. Celestia was sitting on the floor, looking up at the skies, you could see her green guild mark on her left collar bone as she picked up a fallen cherry blossom on the stone path.

"The petals are so delicate," she moved the flower from finger to finger before she let it fly away when the wind picked up.

"I could just relax here all day," Maria murmured.

"We can't though," I said and Maria nudged me on the arm.

"Don't disturb the peace."

"I'm not, what I said before is a fact," I teased.

"So you're a professor now?" Sierra asked. She popped out of the cluster of trees behind us and sat next to Celestia on the floor.

"No, but you know we need to participate in the preliminaries round of the Games right? We need to be back at midnight," I explained, watching another group of flowers falling down from the branches.

"I hope we have more time," Chisaki suddenly muttered and I turned around to look at her.

"Where did you two go?" I raised my eyebrows and looked at both Sierra and Chisaki.

"You just popped out of nowhere," Celestia added.

"... We went to the gift shop," both of them stated.

"Gift shop?" Oh god. Rina heard them. She's going to drag us there like before.

"Come on then!" She called out and you could guess what happened. Except she didn't drag us, she pushed us until we could match the speed of a jet.

**Third Destination: Gift Shop**

"These are cute," Chisaki commented. She grabbed a silver charm with a heart-shaped aqua jewel hanging from it.

"I like this one," Jade said gruffly. When she was done with her clothes shopping, Rina pushed her to the gift shop and made her fell to the floor whereas we all landed on top of her.

Jade took hold of a silver chain charm, at the bottom is a black and white skull-shaped jewel.

"Why don't we all buy one?" Emily suggested.

In just a second, we all agreed and found our favorite charms. Mine was a silver one with two star-shaped gems, one being purple and the other being golden respectively.

"To Angel's Gate!" Emily said, holding her charm in the air. We all followed and I smiled as we shouted together.

"To Angel's Gate!"

**Fourth Destination: Crocus' Main Square**

We practically went to every store the area has to offer and ended up buying a store's worth of items.

"Could you give me a little help please?" Chisaki asked, you couldn't see her face because it was fully covered by a mountain full of shopping bags and I sweat dropped as I helped her carry them.

**Fifth Destination: Copper Alley's Royal Cafe**

All of us had lunch in a backstreet cafe near the inn. The food was surprisingly delicious and we talked about random topics before we had to return back to the penthouse in preparation of the preliminaries round of the GMGs. I had an iced cappucino and a plate of gigantic sandwiches that filled up my empty stomach right away.

We're as full as a truck that's loaded with our shopping bags and we went back to the inn to rest a bit.

**~Back At The Amber Crown Inn~**

_~A Few Minutes Before Midnight~_

"Is everybody ready?" Emily asked.

"I think so," I replied, strapping on my belt.

Our team, including the reserve members had just put on our outfits for the Games. A week before, we decided the theme color and decided it would be black. I luckily have a set of clothes that's perfect for battle and I slipped on my knee-high lace-up black boots for the finishing touch.

My outfit included a lace, layered black tube top with two thin straps circling my neck, a long-sleeved, waist-length dark jean jacket, short navy jean shorts held up by a silver belt, thigh-high black socks and my boots. I also don my star earrings, a black headband with silver lace lining the edges, the charm that I bought from the gift shop on my belt and the bracelet which Emily gave me.

I buttoned up the two last buttons of my jacket while the others gathered at the balcony.

I quickly ran up to them as the clock tower at the center of the city strikes twelve. There was an earthquake, but it resided as a maze appeared in front of us.

"Welcome to the Preliminaries Round of the Grand Magic Games!" A loud voice exclaimed.

"Get ready," Emily said and backed away since she's not suppose to compete.

We all stood side by side and I breathed in.

"Let the Match begin!" The voice said again and this time, loud cheers erupted from below.

* * *

**Author's Corner**

CrystalDT: I hope this chapter is good.

Lucy: You need to be more confident you know.

CrystalDT: I know. I know, but it's too hard for me.

Natsu: Where's my fire chicken?! *bumps into Erza's strawberry cheesecake, making it fall to the guild floor*

Erza: You will pay! *changes into her Purgatory Armor*

Natsu: Ah! I'm sorry, I'll buy you a new one!

*Another guild fight suddenly started*

CrystalDT: *sweat drop* Okay, so the mini game in the author's corner would start in the next chapter, until then please read-

Wendy: Rate-

Mest/Doranbolt: And review.

Natsu & Gray: When did he get here?!

CrystalDT: See you next time.


	19. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Preliminaries

Lucy's P.O.V:

There was a loud bang and the cheers of the audience quieted down.

"So these are the rules for the X794 Grand Magic Games' Preliminary Matches!" The same voice announced. "There would only be eight teams that are going to compete for the competition as most of you know. But there's a little catch."

My ears perked up and I stared at the blank sky as if hoping to find the announcer floating up there like a lost balloon.

"The main goal is simple, you need to find one of the hidden eight lacrimas in the maze to move on to the next stage. Once every one of them are taken, the matches would be finished. However, your team must defeat five monsters before you can grab the lacrima. Hope you succeed! Let the Games begin!"

I looked sideways to see my teammate's expression and found them staring at the maze in front of us. I turned my head around and got ready to run when another bang rang throughout the arena.

That must be the starting signal.

"Gate of the Mirage Wings, I open thee, Isabel!" I immediately called out the new key I had just obtained today.

Earlier, I made a contract with this particular spirit and she agreed to help me throughout the rest of the GMGs.

There was a burst of light a few feet away and when it resided, there stood a girl around 19-20 years old with flowing lavender hair that reaches until her mid-thighs and wide golden eyes.

She was pale and fragile-looking, though the bow and arrows she held in her hands say so otherwise. A pair of glittery fairy wings sprouted from her back, beautifully shining like fireflies in a starry night. Her body was covered by a dress that hugged her curves perfectly and she appears to be bare footed. Her face was soft and I thought about the first master of Fairy Tail, Mavis Vermillion.

"You called princess?" Isabel, the girl, asked. She had a velvety voice with a sharp edge to it. Believe me when I say that even though she may seem weak, she sounds like she could easily kill you in a heartbeat if you offended her.

"Yes, please fly up and tell us the location of the lacrima," I demanded in a soft tone. It actually sounded more like I'm asking her to do me a favor rather than giving out orders.

"I could do better than that," Isabel said and a cloud, light and soft like the wool Aries makes use of, appeared below us and we flied up to the sky.

We went as high as we could and stopped once we got a perfect view of the maze. My eyes searched the area, carefully gazing down at every nook and cranny to search for the lacrima. The announcer said that it's hidden, so it's got to be small and could easily fit in a small hole in a wall.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw five figures standing at the entrance of one of the balconies. I looked at them for a while until I noticed the familiar pink salmon color of Natsu. I adverted my eyes away and continue to search the maze.

"It's right there!" Rina shouted and we all looked at the direction she's pointing.

There on top of the highest tower in the middle of the maze and buried in a pile of rocks is a glowing white lacrima.

Well that wasn't as hard as I thought.

"Teleport!" Jade yelled and a second later, we were transported to the location of the lacrima. The walls were made of iron and I can't help but imagine Gajeel eating them rather than looking for the lacrimas. I sweat dropped at the thought and my eyebrow twitched in irritation. If I was on the same team with Gajeel, I'll probably kill him for doing that and for getting distracted from the task at hand.

Isabel took out a silver arrow from her sheath and got ready to shoot. She froze, as if calculating the total distance from her current position to the speck of dust on top of the tower where the lacrima was buried.

"Watch it!" Jade yelled and I turned around just in time to see a brawny monster, twice the size of Elfman, punching the ground with it's bare hands.

From my position, it looked like a Vulcan, the exact copy of the one from Mt. Hakobe, but I didn't have much time to examine it as I jumped away.

Pieces of large rocks flung into the air and the debris made me cough, so I covered my nose and mouth with my hand. I took out my whip with the other one and slashed the monster with it.

It wailed and kicked the iron wall, which shook like it's going to break into pieces any second or fall off.

Sierra gathered a ball of water with her hands and shot it at the creature before making some hand signs that I recognized belonged to the water dragon's ancient spell. Rina gave me a book about dragon art spells and there are descriptions about several dragons' attacks in there too.

"Water Dragon's Explosion: Third Wave!"

The water ball separated into three glowing, massive waves and hit the monster in different directions. A blue magic circle appeared underneath the Vulcan-like creature and an explosion occurred.

We all ducked as streams of excess water flew over our heads like flying disks and moved away from the spot where the monster was standing.

I gazed at that direction and saw that it was gone. Instead, the creature was replaced by four other copies of it.

The announcer did say we need to battle out five monsters if we want to move on, but I couldn't held back a frustrated sigh that escaped out of my mouth. I don't like to waste my energy in the preliminaries round though I knew I need to spend a little of my magical power if we're going to succeed.

"Isabel!" I called out at the spirit, who was still frozen on her spot.

"Yes, princess?"

"Would you shoot the Vulcans first?" I asked.

She nodded and shifted her bow so that it's pointing at the group of monsters.

"Mirage Shoot!" The arrow flew towards them, the edges gleaming in the moonlight. Soon after, there was three other arrows flying along with it. The four of them pierced through the Vulcans, making them all wail in a high pitched tone.

There are tears in their eyes and they moved about rather cutely as if they're trying to look innocent rather than dangerous like they were before.

I blinked and sweat dropped at their childish actions. Who would've thought that the chairman for the GMGs made those creatures become the final obstacle in getting the lacrimas?

"Darkness Vortex!" Jade chanted and a dark beam suddenly collided with the monsters. They were gone sooner than expected and I felt relieved. We could finally take the lacrima and move on.

Jade crossed her arms, muttering to herself. "Annoying Vulcans..."

"Isabel, shoot the lacrima please," I said. I was silently agreeing with Jade, but I knew that her agitation is twice as much as mine is.

The female spirit shot her arrow at the top of the tower and the white lacrima fell slowly to the ground. I sprinted to catch it and managed to not let it slip to the cracked earth.

I tossed the magical item to my right hand and gazed at it with satisfaction.

"Thank you Isabel."

"You welcome princess," And with that, Isabel disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Alright! Looks like we got the first team that's going to continue to the next round!" The voice of the announcer stated when the lacrima burst into a bright light and we were engulfed by it.

The next thing we knew, we were standing in a simple room with no windows. There's an entrance covered by thick red curtains in front of us and you could hear the sounds of loud cheers outside.

"That lacrima must be a teleportation device," Maria commented. "Too bad I missed out in all the action in destroying the monsters."

"We were fine without you," Jade mumbled, but Maria heard her. They head butted each other, both of them crossing their arms stubbornly.

"What was that?" Maria growled through gritted teeth.

"You heard me," Jade snarled back.

"Stop it!" Rina scolded the two. "Don't fight at a time like this."

"Will you guys stop?" I interrupted.

"Alright," Jade and Maria replied simultaneously. They turned around from each other, though they still kept their glares.

"Please wait here until the other teams arrive," a voice said from the speaker on the corner of the ceiling. "The curtains would automatically opened when it's time for your respective team to enter the arena."

* * *

_~Half an Hour Later~_

At last- like the speaker had announced- the curtains opened when all of the remaining teams finished the preliminaries match.

Sunlight filled the room and the cheers of the people are getting louder by the second. I squinted my eyes to get a better view of the arena from the room but Maria patted my shoulder as a signal that we should go out and present ourselves.

We walked briskly outside and I nearly flinched when the audience screamed ten times as loud as before. I swear I'm going to become deaf just hearing them cry out like that.

"And the first place goes to the new all-female guild, Angel's Gate!"

Loud cheers were everywhere and I cross my arms as our silver gradient guild symbol appeared on top of us. It glittered and looked like a beacon in the sun. I didn't even need blink twice before the mark disappeared in a flash.

I looked around us and saw the other teams, I mentally gulped when I spotted Fairy Tail, standing strong and confident as always. They watched us as our team froze in our spot.

(Here are the list of teams)

**1st Place: Angel's Gate- Lucy/Yukihime, Rina, Maria, Jade, Sierra. **

**2nd Place: Sabertooth- Rogue, Rufus, Orga, Yukino, Gale Asther (credits to author 'Breeze the ninja of air')**

**3rd Place: Fairy Tail- Natsu, Gray, Erza, Gajeel, Laxus. Reserve member(s)- Juvia**

**4th Place: Lamia Scale- Lyon, Chelia, Yuka, Toby, Jura.**

**5th Place: Lumiere Dawns (guild I made up)- Colette Jane Allen (credits to author 'pixiedustmagic'), Lily Wendell, Kyle Sorell, Nicholas Wendell, Christ Sumishima. **

**6th Place: Blue Pegasus- Ichiya, Nichiya, Ren, Hibiki, Eve. Reserve member(s)-Jenny**

**7th Place: Mermaid Heel- Kagura, Arana, Beth, Risley, Millianna. **

**8th Place: Quatro Cerberus (Quatro Puppy)- Bacchus, Rocker, Semmes, Nobarly, Warcry. Reserve member(s)- Jäger**

* * *

"Now may all teams go up to their balconies please," the announcer said and Jade teleported us out of the arena.

I stepped up to take a closer look at the other guild from Angel's Gate's balcony and caught the eye of Natsu, who looks suspiciously at us. He sniffed and there's a pained look in his face.

It can't be my scent, I changed it three years ago.

Looking away, I saw Sting Eucliffe gazing at me from his spot at Sabertooth's balcony. He grinned when I return his stare and I put my hands on my hips while turning away. I don't feel like chasing boys ever since that 'incident'. My feelings have been crushed by Natsu when he said I was weak and I'm still a broken little girl in the inside no matter how long ago it was.

Emily, Chisaki and Celestia walked over to us, each of them smiling warmly.

"Congratulations!" Emily stated.

"I can't believe we made it," Chisaki added.

Just as we were congratulating each other, the announcer cleared his throat and the crowd became quiet... For a minute.

The citizens roared and whooped when the lacrima screens appeared in the air, showing all of the eight guilds' symbol like before. Our team quieted down and payed attention to the announcer.

The roaring of the crowd made every guild, including Angel's Gate, pumped up to become the top guild in Fiore. Every one of them showed their signature smirks, grins and smiles, all except for our guild. We showed no emotion, instead just glancing at the battle field as more and more people gathered in the arena.

"Alright, let's start the Games!" A booming voice sounded throughout the entire stadium.

"Finally," I sighed and I turn to stare at the Fairy Tail team.

* * *

**Author's Corner**

CrystalDT: Sorry to bother you with this but here are the character stats.

* * *

Name: Colette Jane Allen

Alias: Lotty-but only affectionately sometimes-.

Age: 13

Birthday: April 4

Gender: Female

Hair Colour: Dark Brown with Brown Highlights

Hairstyle: Kept in high ponytail, bangs falling in her eyes.

Eye Colour: Golden-Brown

Occupation: Student at local school. Works at a diner part time for a bit of money and Lumiere Dawns' Guild Member.

Relatives: Lives with Aunt, had one little brother, now only child.

Magic: She can control the wind, and read emotions off of other people.

History: She lived with both her parents and her little brother Lucas in Clover city until she was 10. At that time her house burned down, and both her parents died. Lucas and her were moved to live with their Aunt. They were quite happy for a while, but then both Lucas and her Aunt caught a deadly sickness-small pox maybe- and Lucas died. Colette was there when he died, and that was when she found out she had magic. Her Aunt is still sick, but will probably recover. Colette joined Lumiere Dawns in the middle of X792-X793 to earn more money.

* * *

Name: Gale Asther

Age: 17

Gender: female

Hair Color: Midnight Blue

Eye Color: Dark Violet

Affiliation: Sabertooth

Occupation: Mage

Guild Mark Location: Left Shoulder Blade

Guild Mark Color: Purple

Magic: Wind Magic (can heal people too, much like Wendy)

Background: Her parents killed when she was five years old. She was a loner most her life. She learned magic by closely observing wind-user mages and managed to master it by the time she was a teenager. She joined Sabertooth when she was 15 and proved to be a worthy opponent despite her looks.

* * *

CrystalDT: So those are the character stats for now and it's time for the truth or dare mini game!

Mirajane: This would be fun. *smiles sweetly*

Fairy Tail Guild Members: Mirajane's demon matchmaking mode is on!

CrystalDT: Now, let's start with picking an object that belongs to one of the guild members of Fairy Tail from this box. *brought out a decorated cardboard box and rummage her hand inside, taking out a light blue boxer with multiple ice cube patterns on it* Let me guess... Gray.

Gray: What in the world is my boxers doing there?!

Mirajane: Well...

Lucy: Mirajane's in charge of taking the guild member's personal belongings to be put into the box.

Gray: Seriously Mira! Why my boxers?!

Mirajane: *giggles*

CrystalDT: Well then, it's my turn to ask you then Gray. Truth or dare?

Natsu: Come on ice prick, pick dare! Or are you too scared?

Gray: What was that flame brain?!

Erza: Answer the question or face my wrath.

Gray: *backs away* Aye! Dare! I choose dare!

CrystalDT: I dare you to put make-up on Sting when he's sleeping.

Gray: That is the most girliest dare I've ever faced.

CrystalDT: You're lucky I didn't ask you to put on a princess dress and put on lipstick while dancing salsa with Natsu.

Gray: *gulp* I'll take the first dare you gave me. Dancing with flame head is too... *disgusted look* I don't even want to talk about it.

CrystalDT: Then here you go. *hands Gray a set of make-up completed with magenta-colored mascara and bright pink lipstick*

Gray: *silently sneaks into Sting's room and puts make-up on him before running away* Done!

CrystalDT: Wait until he wakes up, I can't wait to see his face. *smiles and giggles*

Gray: It's my turn now before I get killed by Sting. *grabs an object from the box and shows it to the guild. It was a plushy identical to Gray and have a Juvia-shaped charm hanging from it's pants* What the-

Juvia: Mira! I threw that plushy into the trash three years ago!

Mirajane: *grins* I may have gone to the dumpster and dug it out.

Guild Members: *sweatdrop* You would go that far?

Gray: *blushes* A-Alright. Juvia, truth or dare?

Juvia: Truth. *looks away feeling slightly embarassed*

Gray: What do you really feel about me?

Juvia: I used to like you.

Mirajane: Correction- You used to LOVE him.

Juvia: Mira!

Gray: What about now?

Juvia: I'm still mad at you for making Lucy-san quit the guild.

Mirajane: That's in the story.

Juvia: It could affect people in the outside too! Never mind. *puts her hand in the box and pulls out a sword* Is this... Erza-san's?

Erza: Yeah.

Juvia: Truth or dare?

Erza: Hmmm... Truth.

Juvia: Forgive me Erza-san, but do you love Jellal-kun?

Erza: Uh... Y-yes, I guess you could say that... *quickly turns around and grabs something furry from the box. She pulls it out to reveal Happy*

Happy: Natsuuuu! Mira put me in here for no reason!

Erza: *sweat drops and releases Happy* Really Mira?

Sting: Alright *bangs open the door of the guild with his face covered in mascara! red blush, smoky eyes! doodles and lipstick* Who did this to my handsome face?!

Guild Members: *points to Gray*

Sting: Why you-

CrystalDT: Easy now, we're playing a game here. You could go get him later. Now the last one before we close this chapter.

Erza: I'm guessing Happy is Natsu's so... Natsu, truth or dare?

Natsu: Dare!

Erza: Buy me some cake will you?

CrystalDT: That's not a dare. *sweat drop*

Erza: I'm not finish. And stuff Jellal's face with jello please.

Natsu: *does it and ended up getting beat up* Why me?

CrystalDT: So that's it for this mini game! Please read-

Lucy: Rate-

Natsu: And review- *falls to the floor* Help, please?


End file.
